Emblaze
by Aeria Swordlancer
Summary: In a world where FACE has debilitated humankind by drastically bringing down the ethernano count, one warrior is made to confront a past chapter that she thought she'd reluctantly buried. Part one of my Ft Love in a Dystopia Project: Jerza.
1. Part I

**(A/N): Okay. So lemme get this straight. This was originally meant to be a mindless, plot-less piece of smutty goodness. But there's this peculiar thing inside me that screams blasphemy every time I think about writing something just for the sake of writing it. So yeah. I kinda decided to put the smut in a particular framework and this is the end product. It goes without saying that I got a little too carried away by the time I reached climax (no pun intended), and decided to make this concept a legit plot bunny for a project in the pipeline. I'm giving no guarantees. I MIGHT turn this into a multi-chap someday, in which case, it'll be published separately as another story, NOT as a continuation of this particular two-shot. ALSO, I'm planning to write three other short stories – oneshots or twoshots, depending on the flow of the said stories – with the same background in mind; namely, Nalu, Gruvia and Gale in a post-apocalyptic, Tartaros-ruled Fiore, and these too will be published as separate oneshots. I guess this means this story can be taken as some kind of a pilot chapter for an upcoming series?**

**If you do NOT like seeing your favourite characters in situations of a sexual kind, then it is wise for you to turn around and trace your steps back. You've been warned.**

**Phew. Now onto the story.**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

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**- Emblaze-**

**by Aeria Swordlancer**

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**Part I**

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_Thirteen years post apocalypse_

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Perched atop the ghostly ruins of what had once been a gigantic Cathedral, Erza Scarlet let her gaze sweep over the undulating plains that seemed to stretch for an eternity before her eyes. The winds up at her position were strong, whipping her hair about her face and letting the lapels of her travelling cloak fly high against the current. A compact troop of revolutionaries – or _cesspoolers_, as they were called after the war against Tartaros – was setting off on a recon in the distance, its small number traversing the uneven valley that opened up what was left of Fiore to the world outside – a world fallen to and marred by the very epitome of evil.

It was nearing sundown and a slight chill had tiptoed in through the withering trees of the great forest, whispering its way through the deserted alleyways and streets of this abandoned city, but it wasn't strong enough to deter the revolutionaries from doing what they were wont to do. It was their daily business after all; a kind of business that meant the world to the terrified citizens across Fiore and beyond. A kind of business that forced their collective fate as defeated humankind to hang on a precarious balance between victory and eternal damnation.

Letting out a deep sigh and putting a strand of scarlet lock behind her ear, Erza dismounted from her position atop the belfry to land onto what had once been the arcade, her movements hampered greatly by the prosthesis gracing her left leg. It was a hindrance alright, but her adjustment process to this new handicap had taken a qualitative leap over the past few years from major discomfort to a minor irritant, thanks to her steel like determination, coupled with some excellent handiwork by a certain Wendy Marvell. She hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about losing a limb in the middle of such a fateful battle, but there wasn't much that she could have done to avoid the blow. Sure, losing magical powers had been a big setback to their side in the first place, but Fairy Tail was not Fairy Tail if not annoyingly persistent.

Besides, Titania wasn't the kind to sit back when faced with the prospect of descending upon the battlefield with only three original limbs intact.

"This is quite serene for a battlefield, is it not, Erza-san? Erza was broken out of her daze when she was greeted by a familiar face sitting just a few metres away from the spot where she'd landed. Facing the setting sun dancing teasingly behind the mountains far away, Bisca Connel sat with her knees drawn to her face, eyes appreciating the scenic beauty that looked like a dreamscape in the midst of their grim circumstances.

Erza let a smile tug at her lips. "Tell me about it."

Bisca sighed and turned to look at her commander, eyes drifting down to her artificial limb for a split second. "Is everything okay with your leg? You seem to be limping."

Erza waved her hand in dismissal.

"I'm fine. Just need to oil this thing." She tapped the area where her left femur met metal and plastic.

Bisca nodded and went back to looking at the setting sun. "Asuka's insistence knows no bounds. She's adamant about joining us in our next campaign as a front line fighter. She's not giving me the chance to decline her request," she said, a touch of wistful longing in her eyes as she observed the scenery with a fierce sort of determination. "Only you can influence her to stay now. She'll throw a fit, of course, but she will never be able to go against the commander's decision."

"But the question is," Erza began, eyes hooked onto the back of Bisca's head, "-is that really what you want?"

There was a moment of tense silence in which Erza guessed the older woman to be debating the answer in her head.

"I…don't know," Bisca finally gave in, her shoulders sagging. "It's just…I really don't want to lose-" she bit her lip and cut off mid-sentence before harsh memories could resurface. Erza flinched inwardly as the unspoken words hung between the two like a weight that could crush their very soul.

_Don't want to lose my only child like I lost my husband._

Erza shifted uncomfortably on her feet. Discussing this particular topic could be like dipping one's fingers in acid around their division. After all, it was in a battle about five months ago that Division Four of the rebel army had witnessed the gruesome death of Alzack Connel by a monster from the demon guild. He'd been fighting valiantly against the enemy, swinging his rifle around like a sword in lieu of the shots that he couldn't get when he'd been struck in an attempt to save his wife from taking the deadly blow. His head had snapped clean off his shoulders, his bloody body sinking into his wife's arms and drowning into her blood-curdling scream. It'd taken Erza all of her determination to stop herself from forgetting her own humanity by inflicting carnage upon the remaining enemies. There was a reason they were, as a collective force, trying to distinguish themselves from the demons they fought.

The silence between the two women stretched on for another five minutes or so, before Erza decided to close the distance between them and do something that she hadn't done in a good while.

Her arms came around Bisca from behind, holding tightly onto her shoulders in what she thought was a comforting embrace. Seconds later, as Erza had expected, Bisca gave in and let the tears fall.

"I…I don't know-"

"It's okay. You don't have to always be strong," Erza said soothingly, fingers gliding through the sniper's hair in an uncharacteristic display of tenderness. "While I might not know what motherhood feels like, I can say this is a tough decision for you to make. I won't force you. This is your decision. It's just…just think about what your daughter really wants. She's nineteen and the world we live in is the kind where you can't stay safe even in the shelter you call home. Someday or the other, all of humankind will have to fight in its own capacity and we all know that day isn't too far away."

Bisca didn't utter a word in response, opting to stay silent through her tears.

"I might sound a little selfish here," Erza continued, now patting the older woman on her shoulders, "-but I don't mean to be insensitive. You have all the right to prevent your daughter from fighting in the next campaign, but for how long will you be able to keep her hidden from this world? Your daughter has grown into a fine warrior. I'm sure she'll make you proud."

Bisca let out a soft chuckle in between her silent sobs.

"Of course she will. You trained her."

A warm smile spread across Erza's lips as she remembered the last time Asuka Connel had asked her for a friendly match. It'd ended with the former narrowly missing a scenario where she would have had to tie a sling around both her arms for the next few months or so.

"I'm pretty sure your little one, who's not so little now by the way, has surpassed me by this point," Erza assured, before detaching herself from the rather invasive hug to stand right behind Bisca, noticing the way the sniper's eyes lit up upon being made privy to her daughter's achievements. Erza could get the sentiment. She felt pretty much like a proud parent herself.

"I'll see you around for dinner in a while then. Take care, okay?" she said finally, letting out a deep breath and stretching her arms to loosen the knots in her muscles. Her eyes still lingered on the back of Bisca's head, who'd turned back around to gaze at the scenery with a kind of focus that seemed forced, as if she was trying hard not to think about anything else but the mountains in the distance.

Erza sighed. She reckoned she ought to leave the older woman to her musings for a while, seeing as it was not the first time that she had spotted her sitting all by herself, contemplating and meditating instead of resorting to other little activities that could get her mind off things. Moreover, it was not Erza's place to pry into the personal affairs and habits of her comrades, even if they were supposed to have once been a part of the same guild as she.

With this thought in mind, she retraced her steps down the elevated surface of the ruin and made a beeline for a row of sunken columns at the foot of the structure that provided their division with a natural cover for the bunks underneath. This particular segment of the erstwhile cathedral had partially survived whatever destruction had been meted to it in the past, causing the base of the cluster of columns to sink halfway into the ground and then converge towards a particular point to create a canopy like structure at the top. The gaping hole in the ground underneath had been efficiently utilised by her unit as the men and women had set about digging a deeper hole underground for the purpose of habitation. After almost a year of hard work, her division of about a little under thousand had managed to create an underground basecamp that melted into the sewers of the destroyed city above.

All along the way to the dining area, her fellow soldiers greeted her cheerily and almost went out of their ways to give her little reports from missions completed or ask questions about the ones to come. Erza met every inquisition with an equally eager response, stopping by a few times at certain bunks to inquire about recently injured and recuperating comrades. As the commander of this division, Erza felt it her responsibility to ask after her fellow soldiers' health and personally urge them to take better care of themselves. A few words of encouragement from her, and Erza noticed that her fellow warriors would be infused with enough enthusiasm to see themselves through the next five campaigns or so.

"Good day Commander! I've been looking for you all over! I've an important message from the First Division."

That got Erza's full attention just a few steps short of the dining hall.

"Go ahead Laki. Hope this one's not sour to the ears."

Laki Olietta rounded up on her captain with a bounce in her step, her hands behind her back and her entire body weight shifted to the tips of her toes as she faced Erza with a kind of passion that had been absent from her body language over the past few months of tension and uncertainty. She displayed a knowing smile as she began with her report, her voice betraying the enthusiasm that she was trying hard to mask. "Sector-10 has fallen. Hibiki Laytis has managed to set up an underground station at its very core. It won't be long before we manage to regain control over the lacrima resources belonging to that particular section of the enemy's basecamp."

Erza's heart almost jolted out of her ribcage in sheer ecstasy. This was probably a rare reaction to get from her these days.

"Is that a fool proof report? No flukes this time around?"

"None that I know of. Besides, First Division commander had his dibs on the area. I highly doubt Natsu would have been denied victory in a place that he has wanted to reoccupy for such a long time. Hibiki himself made the confirmation from ground zero."

Erza nodded to show her approval. A few months ago, an elaborate plan had been sketched out within the confines of the First Division residing somewhere in South Fiore, expressing the Rebel Army's desire to reclaim a certain territory in the enemy camp that served as a vital point for Tartaros to cultivate and replenish the limited ethernano reserves of the world. Out of the many energy stations that served as the guild's reactor points across the continents, this particular station in the south-west district was important in the sense that it provided energy sources to almost a quarter of Fiore's population. If this were to fall under the rebels' control, ethernano tax for the entire western belt of the country could become less of the nightmare than it already was. It would also serve the rebel army with an additional advantage in the sense that the barracks would be assured of an abundant source of ethernano to create lacrima-powered weapons for a better chance against Tartaros.

Erza took a deep breath of relief after what seemed like ages, but her grin turned into a frown the moment she read the expression on Laki's face.

"Is that all for the day or are you saving something for dessert?" she asked of her comrade.

Laki resisted the urge to chuckle.

"There's more to Hibiki's report. He has data on your requested area of research."

Erza stopped dead in her tracks.

"Follow me," she said in a voice that didn't go above a whisper, taking a detour to almost glide down a narrow corridor that led to the central strategy room. This place was hardly frequented by the regular warriors from the division and was a reserve for only the top-notch officers. Even for this selected batch of rebels, however, convergence at the meeting point towards the end of the corridor was not a regular affair. Strategies were usually discussed with the entirety of the division before being taken to the room, giving the upper echelons enough time to see the sordid, circular room with charts and diagrams again after the end of one meeting.

The said room had been constructed at the core of their base, concealed well by a massive column of pillars that had miraculously survived destruction and had consequently sunk well into the ground, creating a natural arch like structure for the purpose of protection. It was a utilitarian room with minimal space and furniture, but the circular table erected at the centre was the focal point of this limited space, occupied as it always was with important papers on strategy and defence.

Erza gently shut the door to the almost closet-sized room, beckoning Laki towards a set of chairs that had been haphazardly propped around the head of the conference table.

"Have a seat."

Laki obeyed immediately, her hips perched so daintily atop her chair that it seemed like she was two seconds away from jumping up and flying through the roof. Erza, too, didn't seem to be in the mood to sit, but drew up a chair nonetheless and took a seating position with her back ramrod straight.

"Now shoot."

Laki took a deep breath and burst into explanation.

"Christina 2.0 has found traces of _his_ ethernano signature at the exact same point where the last anima like structure was spotted. Hibiki is fairly certain that the signatures he found thirteen years ago have returned miraculously and are pretty prominent on the spot. You do know what that means, don't you?"

Of course Erza knew what that meant.

"Can you establish a direct line of contact with Hibiki? Is it possible in our current conditions?" she asked, trying not to sound as giddy as she felt. She had a reputation to uphold as the commander of the division.

Laki regarded her leader with something akin to uncertainty in her eyes. "I'm…not so sure," she said, biting her lip, but looking at Erza's crestfallen expression, she quickly took a U-turn. "But I can certainly try!" she added, wringing her hands in front of her.

Erza's lips quirked up on one end. "Great! I know this is a tedious task for you to accomplish, but if there's any way we can save the person who lessened almost half of humanity's burdens thirteen years ago, there's no better time to start but now."

Laki nodded in understanding. "Absolutely," she said with conviction in her tone. "Shall I use up ethernano from the division's stock to kick-start communication?"

Erza shook her head rigorously at that, feeling and looking a slight bit ashamed. Thirteen years ago, when Tartaros had trampled ruthlessly upon the world as humans had always understood it, ethernano count in the atmosphere – the vital natural phenomenon that sustained magic in the world – had almost been eliminated using FACE. Whatever was left of this natural resource had either been siphoned off to meet the demons' needs or used as an ultimate tool to further stratify and hierarchize society. The latter option had been liberally used by the monsters from Tartaros, culminating in the creation of several thousand reactor plants across continents that collected and replenished the remaining traces of ethernano in the atmosphere. Following this project, Tartaros had systematically dismantled regular technological equipment and systems used by non-mages to create a society that depended on nothing but lacrima-powered engines. Since lacrima crystals required ethernano to sustain themselves, the demon guild had cleverly put in an oppressive and highly despicable system of 'taxes' in place that inevitably stratified the society into haves and have-nots. Those who could afford lacrima engines would never bear the burden of the ethernano tax, while those who couldn't were pushed down to the lowest rungs of society. For the rebels, however, 'lowest' was not even the middle strata in their order of things. They were the pariahs – a force that needed to be eliminated or reported to the bosses on sight – and whatever ethernano they could manage to gather would be through reclamation of reactor points, breaking of ethernano tax, espionage in the sense of infiltrating enemy hideouts under the garb of harmless human workers, or stealing from people who were better off without just that tad bit more luxury.

For Erza to use up the division's stockpile – a source of concentrated ethernano that was used to create weapons and other strategic material for the soldiers – for personal purposes, was nothing but an act of deceit and treachery.

"Take up my end of the quota. I'm sure I can do without my Sabre-Scar for the next campaign or two." She declared.

Laki's jaw almost dropped to the floor in surprise.

"But Erza!" she protested, "You can't just do that! You are the commander! Your skills are the most needed around here!" As the leader of the division, Erza was entitled to a certain portion of the collective ethernano stockpile that she could use for her own purposes (especially for recharging her legendary weapon, the 'Sword of the heavens,' Sabre-Scar). If Erza were to give up a certain percentage of her lacrima-source, she would definitely have to make do with an ordinary sword in their next offensive against Tartaros. And as someone who had always looked up to and depended majorly on the commander's battle prowess with her famed weapon, this particular scenario was practically unheard of for Laki.

But Erza Scarlet was Erza Scarlet. There was a reason she could rival even Natsu Dragneel in terms of her determination to do what she thought she ought to do.

"There is no way I'm letting you deplete the division's reserves. This is my final decision, Olietta Laki. Take up a portion of my ethernano and use it to establish contact with Laytis Hibiki over radio." She was using her 'commander voice' and there was no way Laki could turn her back to it. The order had been given. All she had to do now was follow-through.

"Yes Ma'am," she said reluctantly, but she never let her disappointment appear too prominent in her tone. Bowing slightly, she traced her steps back out the room, heading straight away for the communication chamber and leaving Erza alone to her musings.

Through her short journey to the said room in the northern section of the barracks, all Laki could hope was for Erza to finally get some lead on the person she'd been relentlessly trying to trace for the past thirteen years.

This much sought after reunion would at least be special in the sense that it'd most certainly bring the twinkle back in Erza Scarlet's eyes.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The communication apparatus that had been developed by Hibiki Laytis and Levy McGarden over the past ten years or so was definitely a sight to behold. Though a little cumbersome to carry around when on the move, this peculiar device with a million wires and cables was a priceless asset to the four divisions of resistance spread across the four cardinal points of Fiore with its special ability to avoid detection. It consisted of a central monitor that displayed important contacts and dialling information, a voice transmitter, a voice receiver, and a chamber that stored lacrima engines, powered of course, by ethernano from Erza's personal store.

Laki Olietta and Bisca Connel typed a few numbers into the screen and waited impatiently for the line to connect. A strange beeping sound issued that rang through the cramped space that they called the communication chamber, and the two ladies at the helm of affairs tapped their feet impatiently on the floor.

"There seems to be some kind of disturbance in the line," Laki explained to a slightly impatient Erza who was hovering over their shorter forms, her prosthesis clicking and clacking as she walked the room in circles.

"We need to revamp this machine," Bisca added, who had been enthusiastic about joining Erza in her search for humanity's saviour. "Levy mentioned something along those lines in her last letter. They are probably upgrading it to a shorter, more compact-" she broke off and her eyes widened slightly for a fraction of a second. "Hello? Hibiki Laytis?" she said into the mic on her headphones. Laki's back had straightened as well.

"This is Bisca Connel calling from Division Four. Commander wishes to speak with you."

There was a murmur of approval from the other side and Laki beckoned Erza forward, handing her the headphones in the process. "Go ahead." She whispered.

Erza muttered her gratitude and immediately put on the device, her ears buzzing when the loud sound of static roared through the speakers. "Hello? Hibiki Laytis? This is Erza Scarlet, Commander, Division Four!"

"_My my if it isn't the beauty herself_!" came a smooth, almost rhythmical voice from the other end. "_It's been so long since I heard your breath-taking voice. I guess I can live another twenty years now_."

Erza rolled her eyes. "Tough luck, Laytis. You're losing touch and your pick-ups are rather picking rust. Do something about it or Jenny will probably never see your face again. Which reminds me, how's it going with her?"

There was a light chuckle over the speakers and Bisca shared a knowing smile with Laki.

"'_tis all fine_!" Hibiki responded, a certain softness in his voice that only came when his wife of five years was mentioned. Erza smiled wistfully as she thought about the topic of the conversation she was going to make with the man on the other end of the line.

"Congratulations on the reclamation! Laki informed me this morning. Natsu must be ecstatic."

"_That's a gross understatement_," Hibiki noted, sighing. "_He almost blew up our cover when he announced party night at the barracks. Thank god I wasn't present at the base when he almost drilled the poor lads out of the sewers with all the pipes he unintentionally leaked by somehow flying into each and every one of them. Sometimes, he makes me wonder if he still has his powers intact_."

Erza chuckled into the speakers. "He deserves the celebration. But do give him a cuff on the head from my side next time you meet him. Irresponsible behaviour is not something we can afford at this point, especially when it comes from a division leader," she said.

Hibiki gave his approval over the line and the two parties paused for almost an entire minute. Erza shifted ever so slightly on her feet.

"_I know what you're going to ask me, Erza-san,"_ Hibiki said then, a hint of mirth and enthusiasm in his tone. "_Don't worry. I'll make this easier for you."_

There was another pause, shorter this time.

"_The report's positive. I've analysed and re-analysed the two samples a million times by now and Christina's never wrong about such things. I now have no doubts about the fact that Jellal Fernandes is alive and currently in Earthland."_

Erza's breath hitched in her throat. Beside her, Bisca stiffened with nervous anticipation and placed a quivering hand on her shoulder. Laki, too, displayed a huge beam on her face.

"What about our analysis of the anima like phenomenon?" Erza asked into the speaker, trying to reign in the shakiness in her voice. "Did you guys find out anything about that?"

Another pause.

This time, however, Erza was sure she heard Hibiki's failed attempt at disguising his chuckle with a poorly-placed cough.

"_Well," _he said, sounding like he'd gotten laid in the past one hour. _"I guess the man himself will have to _elucidate _more on that theory."_

Utter silence.

Bisca's hand clamped down on Erza's shoulder like a claw.

"W-what-" Erza began, her voice coming out in a mere whisper, "-do you mean by that?"

Hibiki seemed to have become the kind of person who loved dramatic pauses.

"_There's been a sighting, Erza-san, two hundred kilometres from your headquarters. Jura-san from the Intelligence division confirmed it for us just a couple of hours ago."_

Erza's response was quite antithetical to what she'd expected it to be. Instead of feeling her heart jolt as should have been the case, she felt numbness settle in. However, the two women who flanked her had no such qualms and were currently hyperventilating into her ears. Being the only other members who'd been made privy to this secret collaboration between divisions one and two, they felt it their right to give appropriate reactions to such an explosive piece of news.

Bisca mouthed '_He's alive!' _while grabbing Erza around her shoulders so furiously that the latter was sure she would need a second piece of prosthesis soon enough. Laki was similarly placed in her response.

Erza, however, seemed pretty much like herself on the surface.

"Oh." Was the only thing that came out of her mouth as way of response and this seemed to clearly disappoint Hibiki Laytis.

"_Do you read me?" _he asked uncertainly, a tapping sound issuing through the speakers suggesting that he was probably checking his headphones for defect.

"Y-yes, I do," Erza said then, as if broken from a trance. It seemed so unreal.

A dream. A desire. A wish she'd been making for the past thirteen years of her life.

For all of it to come true at one fell swoop, Erza wasn't sure if the wild beating of her heart against her ribcage was any good for health.

"Can you wire us the coordinates?" she asked over the speakers, trying to school her voice into a professional tone that betrayed nothing of the apprehension she was feeling beneath the surface. The water seemed still on the outside, but unbeknownst to others, there was a whirlpool raging underneath.

"_We're not too sure about the precise location, but I can give you a proximate idea," _came Hibiki's reply and the sound of shuffling papers issued through the speakers. "_Check out your inbox. I've sent you a file." _Sure enough, a tiny, almost inaudible beep sounded from the monitor overhead and Laki pressed a couple of buttons on the keypad to open the received file. Erza gave a quick read to the electronic document before her eyes, memorising the numbers by heart. She was sure if she were to ever suffer from head trauma in the future, she would still not be able to forget those numbers.

Because these numbers were the key to a dream that had been snatched from her ruthlessly, only to shatter that part of her life which had kept her hopeful through some long years of separation. Prior to that one incident thirteen years ago, Erza still had something to look forward to despite her distance from the one she loved. She'd had an assurance; a constant reminder of his well-being that would at least make that other part of hers feel safe, feel complete. However, with the onset of the demon guild's rule, everything around her turned to black. Despite there being the biggest concern of getting their world back from the clutches of evil, there was also a constant reminder that the very foundation of Tartaros' rule had been built upon a sacrifice - a sacrifice that had been the end of happiness as she had known it. From that point on, Erza Scarlet had selected a rusty looking sword from a dump of weapons, infused it with lacrima crystals and made it her own. Using that sword as her only companion through thick and thin, Erza had laid the foundations for Division Four within the rebel army and made it what it was today. It'd taken a lot of effort, of course, coupled with the unintended but inevitable offering of blood by her martyred comrades. Many a friends had come and gone, whizzing past her eyes like a motion picture on fast forward, but Erza had always remained on the same spot, clutching her Sabre-Scar to her bosom like her only companion.

Normally, Erza Scarlet wouldn't have appreciated someone's attempt at shattering a reality that she'd lived with so far – a reality that she'd held onto to transform herself into a force to reckon with for the enemy side. A reality that had made her what she was today, finally armouring the heart that had always been her Achilles' heel. However, for someone dependable to deconstruct this very reality that she'd lived, no matter its role in making her the person that she was today, she couldn't have been more grateful.

Because this reality had meant the demise of that little part inside her that had been her true identity – identity of a warm-hearted woman with a burning compassion to live and cut through the several travesties in life. Without this, Erza had been more of a rebel leader on autopilot.

For someone to come and turn her world upside down with just a sentence in affirmation, Erza Scarlet couldn't think of that person as anything less than a messiah.

"Thanks for this Hibiki. Thanks for everything," she said warmly into the mic, feeling truly that her words of gratitude were well-placed and well-deserved. In that little moment, she felt so warm inside-out that she could have, had it been possible, reached out for the man on the other side by transmitting herself through the receiver.

Alas, magic of that calibre was a little difficult to perform in a Fiore stripped off its ethernano abundance. Besides, that would have been a crazy feat even in a world with abundance of teleportation magic.

There was a silent pause following her show of gratefulness and for a second, parties on both sides of the line didn't know how to proceed with the conversation. Or what to end it with, for that matter.

After having lived apart from most of her guildmates due to the nature of humanity's fight back campaign against Tartaros, there were only a handful of traditional means left for staying in touch with old friends. And while a pigeon or occasional messengers would normally do the job under ordinary circumstances, there was always the danger of their communication being intercepted by the enemy. Besides, there was only so much you could write on a piece of parchment, the other option of talking over a communication device like the one in front, often being written-out as an endeavour that cost them too much of precious ethernano.

Unfortunately for Erza, she couldn't just let the dwindling quantity of the power source from fizzling out by holding onto the receiver and asking after the well-being of a long list of friends with whom she hadn't had a chat in ages.

She was about to give her part of the sign-out when Hibiki suddenly interrupted with a sharp cough.

"_There's one more thing_," he said then, his tone a little hesitant. It was rather comical how he'd turned from being overly optimistic and ecstatic to a little apprehensive in less than two minutes.

Erza's heart stopped for a fraction of a second in response.

"What?" she whispered into the mic, her stance rigid and alert, bracing for the catch that was about to come.

"_I won't say this is in any way detrimental to his safety, but I reckon you ought to know," _yet another pause.

"_The second sample of ethernano trace that Christina found out has been present on the spot for nearly two years now, Erza-san. No external source, demon or human can mask an ethernano signature unique to a mage. Only the mage concerned can mask their signature."_

Erza stood still through the explanation.

"_As you know, we started with this project nearly twelve years ago when Christina did a survey of the area where Jellal first… first attempted to deactivate FACE himself. As was expected, we found his ethernano signature on the spot, proof of the fact that he'd been responsible for using his last ounce of magic in a final attempt to save humanity. Immediately after that spotting, one of your scouts reported the discovery of an Anima like phenomenon around the area…like a suction point in the atmosphere that could have been a portal to our mirror dimension. After I collected the signature sample for future references, it disappeared like I'd expected it to disappear, coming back to my notice three days ago when Christina was doing a resurvey of the area for any traces of the Anima-like phenomenon. It's a positive sign, of course, since no living being, mage or demon, can replicate the ethernano signature of another mage. Even if they can pull off something like that, Christina's smart enough to differentiate between an original source and an imitation, indicating that it is, indeed, Jellal and that he _has _been around…for quite some time now. My calculations say two years…Erza-san. Jellal Fernandes has been on Earthland for nearly two years now."_

Erza's fists shook as she gathered the information.

"You mean to say…" she began, her voice sounding strangled and subdued.

"-_That Jellal Fernandes probably masked his own ethernano signature after returning to Earthland two years ago, a conscious effort to hide his presence from the world. I'm not jumping to conclusions here Erza-san. He's probably trying to conceal himself from Tartaros…" _Hibiki finished for her.

Erza knew she'd a better idea than that. A letter that she'd written to Hibiki nearly a year and a half ago came to her mind immediately, confirming the nagging suspicion that had been clawing at her heart since that little occurrence on a fateful night.

"Thank you for your help, Hibiki," she said into the mic once again, her voice betraying nothing of the wild emotions playing inside her heart. "We'll begin with the search right away. Please give my regards to Natsu and the entirety of Division One."

Having said that, Hibiki bid farewell from his side and the line subsequently went dead, the loud sound of static buzzing through the headphones once again.

This time, however, Erza didn't even flinch as the shrill sound cut through her ears.

"Erza-san?" Bisca placed a hand on her shoulder in concern, looking slightly confused. "Are you okay?"

Erza nodded, a determined set to her rigid, unmoving shoulders.

"I'm fine. Prepare a couple of escorts for the reclaim mission. I'll be leading the troop myself. We're following the coordinates and saving humanity's saviour."

Having given the order, Erza moved towards her personal cabin located at the heart of the basecamp to prepare herself for the tumultuous journey ahead.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The chilly wind that was cutting through her uncovered face was beginning to bite her down in the bones.

That, and also the full-force of the revelation that had hit her a couple of hours ago during her chat with Hibiki over the communication system.

Perched atop her steed and leading an advancing troop of about twenty elite soldiers, Erza Scarlet cut through the undulating valleys of Fiore's eastern belt, heading straight for the destination represented by the coordinates etched deeply into her brain.

_Jellal Fernandes has been on Earthland for nearly two years now._

Hibiki's words rang through her head as she struggled to keep her eyes on the road ahead, her hands gripping the reins as if her it were her own soul thread.

_Two years._

"Two fucking years," she repeated in a mutter to herself, fighting back the bitter tears that had begun to surface. "Two _fucking _years…"

For thirteen years of her existence, Erza Scarlet had been under the impression that she was following a cold trail – a figment of her imagination that was her last ditch attempt to placate her own disbelieving mind. How many times had she cursed herself for putting her division members through so much trouble just to confirm a single suspicion based on a single report? And how many times had she rebuked herself for chasing a dream that she could never hope of achieving?

Thirteen years ago, when one of her division members had reported the presence of an Anima like structure where Jellal had sacrificed his life to stop FACE from activating to its full potential, Erza had been positive that her love was alive. Her gut feeling had told her so. Her heart had told her so.

Bringing in the best of minds to her plans, Erza had staked her hopes on Hibiki and Levy, placing faith in their ability to calculate their way to Jellal's location to soothe the ache in her heart. Christina had been the perfect vessel for this purpose and Hibiki's brains – the original 'Archive' and his pillar of strength – the biggest key in the search. Experiments had been performed, theories formulated, but not much progress had been made with regards to pinpointing Jellal's location. After nearly ten years of rigorous searching and lack of consequent positive results, Erza had given up hope, deciding to resign to a fate she should have ideally succumbed to thirteen years ago.

Even the little incident a year and a half ago had done nothing to rejuvenate the lost hope in her heart.

"_What a fucking fool I am," _she thought to herself bitterly, a single tear now trickling down her cheek. "_I should have figured everything out…"_

She took a deep breath as she cut her way through a steep gorge, never once flinching at the prospect of making one wrong move and plummeting head-first into the frightening depths. She'd enough on her mind to keep her busy as she made her way determinedly through the perfidious landscape, fingers rising to her face to brush away the lone evidence of her only weakness.

**0**

**0**

**0**

_A year and a half ago…_

_It was a balmy summer night and the wind coming in through the open windows of her hole in the wall compartment was pleasant to breathe in._

_Running her fingers through her soggy, bath-fresh hair, Erza Scarlet was enjoying a rare moment of peace and quiet alone in her quarters, her mind thankfully devoid of war calculations and the like. Having just completed a particularly dangerous mission that involved mapping a prospective base for their next headquarters, Erza Scarlet had finally managed to get the opportunity to take some time out for herself – an activity that could be considered the rarest of the rare._

_When she was done with untangling the unruly knots in her hair, Erza proceeded to laze on her Spartan cot set right next to the window, the curtains from the opening flying across the mattress and tangling with the sheets. Letting out a deep sigh, Erza lifted her better leg to rub a particularly sore spot somewhere between her sole and ankles, mewling to herself as the massage loosened the knots in place and made it possible for her to rotate her foot without any painful interruptions. _

_She continued with her self-administered therapy for quite some time, massaging several other sour spots throughout her body until her back was against the rough pillows of her cot, slightly damp hair soaking through the sheets as she adjusted her neck to avoid getting any painful twinges around her joints in the morning. The bed was pretty rough as it is, and despite having slept on such a rock-hard surface for practically the better part of her life, Erza still hadn't gotten used to the flat contour of her movable bed._

_A sigh escaping her lips, she continued with her ministrations on her stiff upper arms before her fingers flew southwards towards a spot that she knew would deliver pleasure if rubbed the right way. Over the years, Erza had become somewhat of a regular at pleasuring herself, the act providing a perfect way for blowing off steam and letting her pent up energies out in circumstances that could prove quite stressful otherwise. A life that demanded her to live on the edge at all times was exciting, yet taxing, making it absolutely necessary for her to find alternate ways of letting the bottled up energies out. _

_Alternate, because she'd never been one for finding a living, breathing substitute in order to indulge in the real deal._

_Sighing, as her fingers dipped under the band of her panties to stroke the bud dying to be touched, Erza remembered all of her failed attempts at finding, what she called, quick fixes throughout her post-apocalyptic existence. Several male comrades from her division had been at the receiving end of her needs, imperative as it was to find warm bodies during times where living another minute was nothing but a big uncertainty. She had had her fair share of steamy make-out sessions, but her attempts never managed to move beyond a certain point in the act. _

_Every time that Erza Scarlet attempted to cross the line and move to the other side by leaving behind a past that she just didn't want to let go, she would be forced to a halt and compelled to re-evaluate her existence. Often, her sudden emergence to consciousness would result in awkward situations between herself and her male companions – hasty retreats, shameful gathering of scattered undergarments, or polite requests to get the hell out of her room – causing her to realise that there was no hope left for her by way of ever getting laid._

_Not that she'd any bitter feelings towards the issue._

_She was, deep inside her heart, more than happy to keep things that way._

_Letting out a soft moan as she now rubbed herself with two enthusiastic fingers, Erza's free hand flew to her clothed breasts in a desperate attempt to heat things up further. With every minute that passed, her sex grew slicker with her ministrations, her fingers now slipping down to her throbbing entrance and plunging right into oblivion._

"_Yes…" she moaned in what she thought was the secrecy of her quarters, the hand at her breast rubbing furiously against the mound in order to hasten the process. _

_All that while, in the short-lived bliss of the moment, her thoughts never strayed an inch away from a certain blue-haired man with olive eyes and a gentle smile. _

"_Jellal…" she breathed, fingers now working their magic at a furious rate. Sweat had started to glisten on her forehead, and Erza let her other hand slip under the folds of her night dress to cup an unclothed breast._

"_Close…" Three precise thrusts in the right angle, and a subsequent rubbing of her sex, and Erza achieved the peak she'd been working hard to build, thinking of it all as the doing of a man she had never once stopped loving._

"_Jellal…" she mumbled again, imagining him to be lying atop her, stroking her sweat-slicked forehead with his gentle fingers and mumbling sweet somethings into her ears, following which, she imagined both of them to giggle and then fall asleep in a cosy embrace._

_She couldn't stop the tear from rolling down at that._

"_Dammit," Erza muttered, wiping the infernal remnant of her weakness with her dress sleeve, furious at herself again. Even in the privacy of her bedroom, Erza hated letting her feelings out in the open like that. _

"_This is all your fault," she said through gritted teeth, eyes hooked onto the ceiling overhead as she imagined the face of the man she loved. "This is all your fault for leaving me behind…"_

_She cursed some more in her head, thinking of different ways to pay Jellal back if he ever came back to her._

If…_he ever came back to her, that is._

_This realisation of her circumstances hit her for the umpteenth time in that tiny instance. It was a realisation that made her feel like she'd nothing left inside her – as if her insides had been gouged out and she'd been walking on without a support, without the very fundamentals that tethered a person to a meaningful, purposeful existence. Of course she'd many important things to do in life and she did realise there was a reason she was still breathing, but that didn't stop her from deciding that all that was left of her life, of her reason to live, was the huge favour she owed to her friends, to her family at Fairy Tail._

_And it was this regular episode of contemplation that drove her to sleep like always. It'd become a routine affair by now: whenever she'd get the rare opportunity to retire to her bunk, Erza would invariably lie awake for hours on end, pleasure herself occasionally, and then fall off to sleep once exhaustion would finally take its toll. She'd never been a heavy sleeper to begin with. Even during safer times in a world not lost to the demons, Erza hadn't been very capable of easily getting some shuteye, in which case, she'd usually read her favourite brand of racy novels to distract herself to sleep. After years of surviving in a world of deep uncertainties, sleep had come to evade her even more. She would almost always find herself lying on her stiff mattress, looking at the ceiling and thinking about life before drifting to unconsciousness after several hours of futile attempts. _

_And today, like any other day, Erza practically begged for sleep despite her drooping lashes._

_When it finally came, it was as if she was floating in a space between two worlds – on one side was the harsh reality of a Tartaros-ruled existence, and on the other, a blissful realm that had everything she could never dream of having in actuality. This included all those people who had been left behind on humanity's journey to freedom – comrades lost to war, and a lover lost to martyrdom._

_This could possibly be one of the reasons why Erza didn't feel like she was experiencing something out of place – that there was something in her immediate surroundings, in her hazy realm of semi-consciousness that shouldn't have been present where it was. Like a streak of shadow on the walls across, the presence made itself apparent on her cloudy senses for a fraction of a second, yet it felt as if it'd been there all along. It appeared, seemed to caress her cheek in a gentle, almost imperceptible brush, and then vanished through the open windows amidst an agitated swirl of the curtains._

_Erza's eyes flew open within a beat._

_Bolting upright and gasping her way to full consciousness, Erza searched her room for any signs of life other than hers. She could feel her heart beating furiously against her chest, two seconds away from bursting out if she didn't do anything to soothe her nerves, but the still lingering presence made the hairs at the back of her hair stand on end. _

"_Who's there?" she said into the semi-darkness of her room, her voice coming out in the form of a weak, almost inaudible croak which had nothing to do with nerves. One leg was swiped over the sheets and placed firmly onto the cold stone floor as Erza detached herself from her cot to stand attentively in her attack mode. Her hand reached for her Sabre-Scar lying right next to her on the bed._

_As she'd expected, there was no response. The fluttering curtains attracted her attention, however._

_Moving towards the open window in a steady and cautious crawl, Erza made sure to brace her sword in front of her as both a shield and a method of offense as she gripped the sill and carefully leaned out. The mountains in the distance and the deciduous trees in their proximity greeted her through the roughly circular hole, night sky shimmering with countless stars providing the only source of illumination on the moonless night. She turned her head to the right first and then to the left, scanning the surrounding windows of the bunks on both sides, before coming to the conclusion that it'd all been a figment of her imagination. _

_That was before she spotted a shadow some metres away, hiding behind a particularly tall tree with a thick bark. It stared up at her curiously, unmoving and unhesitating, shining olive eyes looking relentlessly into her own through a dark shroud._

_They knew she was watching. They knew she could feel the presence. _

_Yet, the shadow made no move to slither away into the night, standing still under her unblinking gaze._

_Erza gulped unconsciously, her Sabre-Scar lowering of its own accord and her rigid stance relaxing despite her reluctance. It was as if her body knew there was no threat around._

_She stood transfixed on the spot for a couple more minutes, eyes staring straight into that one spot in between the trees and into the sea of olive green. An eternity seemed to pass before a slight movement from the shadow she was staring at broke her out of the trance._

_She almost flinched when the presence seemed to look up at her for one last time, before turning around and vanishing into the night. _

_Erza felt as if her life was slipping away from her in that instance of sudden loneliness and dread._

_Taking a sharp breath, she wheeled on the spot, hands still gripping the ragged sill as she tried to even the wild beating of her heart. The starkness of the eye colour had been etched into her mind, the vivid memory of it playing before her own eyes as the ghostly remnants of the mysterious shadow. There had been deep recognition and affection in those eyes, and it was these very sentiments that refused to leave her even after the presence had disappeared._

"_Was that you?" Erza thought out aloud, yet banishing the possibility as soon as it occurred to her. Without even realising it, she had slipped down the length of the wall she was leaning against, her knees having buckled up under the weight of a possible realisation._

_No._

_Obviously, this was one of her elaborate dreams. After all, it wouldn't be the first time she'd had an experience where she thought she'd finally come face to face with Jellal. _

_Her delusional mind had outdone itself today, she decided._

_Chuckling for no apparent reason, Erza shook her head and ridiculed her own childish behaviour, arms relaxing as she set her Sabre-Scar on the cold floor next to her. Next, she cupped her free hands before herself and let her head fall into them, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips._

"_Why the fuck am I doing this to myself?" she muttered into her hands, shaking her head and trying to banish the disturbing thoughts that had begun to resurface. From the looks of it, these thoughts did not seem to be in the mood to leave her anytime soon._

_So, narrowing down on the only course of action available on an occasion such as this, Erza decided to pick up the quill, tear up a piece of paper and write her feelings down in an elaborate letter to the only person she thought capable of solving an absolutely fucked-up piece of mystery. She prepared several drafts of the letter that night, tearing up page after page, starting every letter with a 'Dear Hibiki,' only to end up tearing her hard-work to begin all-over again. It was only after her fifty-first attempt that she finally managed to produce a letter that was professional in its outlook, yet, personal enough to convey her exact feelings. She thought she ought to make a clean breast of her affairs if she wanted to harbour any hope of solving the problem._

_So, with a determined set to her shoulders (and a conviction that the letter would yield no results), Erza sent the post via a lacrima-powered transmitter the very next day, hoping against hope that her conviction would be proved false._

_Unfortunately – or fortunately, she couldn't decide – no confirmation reached her in the aftermath of that letter, coming to her a healthy year and a half later with Christina's discovery of certain ethernano samples…_

**0**

**0**

**0**

The wind was practically howling in her ears by this point.

The steep valley she was traversing was like a death-knell to travellers even in the broad daylight hours, so being anywhere around it during a moonless night was pretty much like an open invitation to death.

Yet, this was Erza Scarlet and her handpicked troop of brave revolutionaries traversing the dangerous landscape, all set to accomplish a mission of grave significance to humankind.

For she may have her reasons for formulating a plan that included strangling one Jellal Fernandes, there was no second guessing at the importance of reaching out to a man who'd given up on his life to save the world in the best way that he could.

"_Just you wait, Jellal," _Erza thought menacingly to herself, fingers tightening their grip on the reins as she drove her way further into a steep cut in the valley, eyes set determinedly ahead. "_You have my questions to answer today."_

And mind you, those questions were heavy.

The group made its uninterrupted journey through the treacherous terrain for a good number of hours on the moonless night, silently tearing through a possible tornado that was blowing in its direction. There was a moment when Erza felt they were being followed, but she did nothing but raise her hackles a bit in response to her suspicion. While there was no denying the possibility of an ambush in their circumstances, Erza and the team were more than prepared to meet any challenge head-on. They weren't fools, venturing out into the night in open enemy territory without a plan or two in mind. Before setting off for the mission, Erza and her group of twenty had engaged in a healthy discussion to chart out a strategy for traversing potentially dangerous grounds and returning with their heads intact. If anything were to go amiss, the best team in Division Four was geared up for a fight to win.

Therefore, raising her right hand and making a precise gesture with her index and ring fingers, Erza alerted the second-in-command of her group of a possible ambush. Riding a step behind her to her right, Orga Nanagear let out a low, yet audible grunt to give his confirmation and prepared himself for a possible attack.

Sure enough, they were surrounded on all sides by demon minions the very next second.

Like a flash of lightening through the night skies, Erza commandeered her group into a battle position; a quick transition that took the enemy unawares. The group of twenty human revolutionaries did not waste a second to organise itself into a preconceived position that enabled it to face its opponents who were spread on all sides, apparently, striving to take advantage of a landscape that looked conducive for a guerrilla warfare.

Alas, the demon minions would never know what hit them.

Unsheathing her Sabre-Scar with a kind of reverence that it truly deserved, Erza swung her legendary sword around, slicing through countless bodies as she drove further without breaking formation. Even without any lacrima crystals charging the weapon, the sword did some major damage as it was flung through the mass of attacking bodies. Around her, her comrades took charge of their own share and tore their way through the ambush with minimal effort. Blood was shed, and flesh ripped apart as the demons were torn asunder in a brutal fashion by humans who had thirteen years' worth grudge to fuel their actions.

And for one Erza Scarlet, there was also the issue of a painful separation that had only just managed to let her have the last shred of sanity.

By the time they were done slicing through half of the attacker's group, the revolutionary troop was dangerously close to the location represented by the coordinates wired by Hibiki. Making a precise calculation in her head, Erza pinpointed the exact spot that could possibly be a hideout for a fugitive like herself (she'd had enough experience with creating secret bases to know what one looked like). Motioning again to Orga who was busy slaughtering his share of the demon army, Erza made to move towards the destination while simultaneously swinging her sword around.

"Onward!" she yelled over the chaos raging through the valley, but soon enough, she came to the realisation that their small group hadn't made much progress by way of moving towards its destination.

Looking around with a raised brow, Erza realised she'd made a grave miscalculation.

"Fuck," she hissed, as she cut open a demon that had lunged at her from the side. Her reliable senses had initially told her they had been surrounded by the minions - the lowest of the demon ranks, but from the looks of it now, the first wave was exactly that – a first wave. For hiding away in the shadows and following their every move closely, was a group of higher ranked demons with possible human levels of intelligence.

Still, she was certain there was nothing in this new development that they couldn't handle.

So, making the necessary changes in the group formation with corresponding hand signals, Erza prepared herself for a tougher battle to come.

Unfortunately for her, the next onslaught proved a lot more powerful than what she'd initially measured and soon, she'd to bid farewell to one of her comrades from erstwhile Mermaid Heel who fell off the cliff in a brave attempt to ward off the second wave.

Erza now found herself cussing endlessly through the battle.

For it was coming again with a force she was sure she wouldn't be able to handle this time; the guilt that seeped in as a result of her inability to formulate a better plan to handle a possible attack from higher classed demons. She'd relied too much on the data available for this area – a data that hadn't been updated in nearly a month – and seeing her comrade fall off the cliff proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

"Commander!" screamed Orga, as Erza narrowly missed a spear aimed at her heart, snapping back to her senses as the weapon whizzed past her, leaving behind a light gash on her arm.

"Nine o' clock!" Orga bellowed further through the clamour and Erza instinctively turned to her left, only to witness a _third_ wave making its way towards their group – a group consisting of demons with supreme human intelligence.

It seemed like there was no way out _now_.

Cursing for the umpteenth time, Erza prepared herself thoroughly for a battle lost. It wasn't in her blood to give in even in the face of an imminent defeat.

If she was going down tonight, she'd would damn well make sure all the demons around were going down with her.

Therefore, letting out an earth-shattering battle cry, Erza now violently swung her sword around, uncaring of the fresh wounds that had begun to sprout all over her body, hampering her movements further. Letting lose like this had never been an option, but in the face of imminent mortal danger, a little bit of rashness on her part had to be forgiven.

For it was this very rashness that was helping her kill more of her enemies, even if it was at the cost of her own well-being.

It was only when a second renegade spear nearly tore through the side of her torso that Erza finally slowed down for a second, arms clutching the rapidly bleeding side as the world around her swirled before her eyes. She was at the verge of falling off her horse, body swaying dangerously along the edge when a figure suddenly materialised on her left, a pair of slender arms holding onto her slouched form as support at the nick of time.

"You okay?" a female voice said into her ears, and Erza turned to her left to look right into a pair of mischievous, chocolate brown eyes.

She blinked.

"Don't sweat it and hold onto the reins. We've got this," the newcomer with brown eyes said, winking. "You sure you can handle yourself?"

Erza continued staring at the newcomer in shock, unable to form a word in response. Soon enough, she felt the presence of some fifty other people on horses around her, indication that her little group had been provided with an unexpected backup. Turning around, she noticed more familiar faces in the crowd.

"Hey! Don't be so out of it in the middle of a battlefield!" the woman with the brown eyes whined and clicked her tongue, prompting Erza to focus her attention back on her. "Buck up now! We're going _home_, Scarlet," she added, before turning around and extracting a spiky whip that she cut through an oncoming batch of demons.

The scene brought old memories back to the fore.

For fighting valiantly in front of her on a white steed, short blonde hair bristling against the wind, was none other than Lucy Ashley.

Lucy Ashley of the Kingdom of Edolas.

* * *

To be continued

* * *

**(A/N): I felt like I was writing an Attack on Titan fanfic towards the end, what with all those battle formations and demon classes.**

**I'm still working on the second part of this fic so I can't give you any guarantees about the exact day I'll be publishing it. All I can say is, stay tuned for the more…uh…juicy bits of the story to come? Ahem.**

**Reviews?**


	2. Part II

**Aaaaand I am back with the promised lemon. I don't know if this counts as good news or not, but I'm going to convert this twoshot into a threeshot now. Explanation given in the notes down below.**

**Grab your popcorn and stuff because this is a 20k+ baby ;)**

**Also, if you are not comfortable with graphically written stuff involving the weewee and the hoo haa, or your favourite characters getting it on with each other, please don't read beyond this point.**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

**-Emblaze-**

**Part II**

* * *

Erza Scarlet decided she'd been through significantly better times in terms of an optimum use of her pain coping mechanisms.

Hiding behind a large rock after she'd unceremoniously been thrown off her horse in the middle of battle, Erza Scarlet sat cursing to herself as the pain from her pierced shoulder blurred her vision and messed up her breathing pattern.

"Ya sure ya okay?" Levy from Edolas was asking, crouched over Erza's bent form and inspecting her bloodied shoulder. "Ya sure ya don't need to lie down on somethin'?"

Erza still had the strength left to roll her eyes though.

"Here? In the middle of war?" she hissed through gritted teeth, clutching her wounded shoulder in a desperate fashion.

Edolas Levy chuckled amusedly to herself. "Point."

A few metres away from their tentative hiding spot, a fierce battle was raging between humanity's forces and the incoming batch of higher classed demons. It'd been a good fifteen minutes since Erza had been swept off her only means of transport and forced to take refuge with Edolas Levy as her supposed bodyguard. The younger female had been reluctant to play the part on two accounts – first, she'd been enjoying her time slaying, and second, she'd been asked to do the job by her archenemy, Lucy Ashley.

Therefore, cursing incessantly, she'd dragged Erza through the chaos towards a cluster of rocks some distance away from ground zero. And while she'd been slightly reluctant of retiring temporarily from action, she'd been anything but inefficient at handling the situation. The tight bandage around Erza's shoulder and the absence of any stray demons, waiting to take their heads around them were testimonies to this fact.

"I should get brownie points for this ya know?" Edolas Levy continued, chuckling to herself again. "I'm like saving the Queen here."

Erza raised a brow through her pain. "Excuse me?"

"Ya heard me Scarlet," Levy said, shrugging, pausing for a minute to swing her mace at a demon that had come lurking towards their base in hopes of having its prey. Sadly, Edolas Levy had crushed its thick skull with just a casual swing of her weapon. "Ya are the queen back home. His Majesty, Emporer Jellal's wife. I should get some _accolades_ here, don't ya think?"

Erza nearly choked on her own spit as the significance of the statement made weighed down upon her.

_Knighwalker? _She thought incredulously to herself, forgetting all about the battle happening a few metres away for a moment. There was something missing from the equation and Erza somehow couldn't fathom how _this _had turned out to be. The last time they'd been in Edolas, there seemed to have been an unhealthy amount of antagonism between the King and Knightwalker, so much so that Erza herself had been a little crestfallen while thinking about how Edolas Jellal and Edolas herself would probably never get down to even acknowledging each other's presence.

And look at time now, turning the tables so stealthily and suddenly that the news had had the power to actually knock the wind out of her sails.

For there were the Edolas ones, happily married and _together, _and here was she, still struggling to have a single glance at a lover who hadn't been around for nearly thirteen years.

_Touché, _Erza thought bitterly to herself, watching on as Edolas Levy took down another demon; this time, with a little more difficulty for the beast was of a higher class. Her hands were practically itching by this point; itching to grab her Sabre-Scar and put it to good use, but her shoulder painted a different kind of imperative altogether.

On top of this unfortunate scheme of events, it took what seemed like an hour for the battle sounds to gradually wane to a whimper. The chaos in the form of a large cloud of dust in the distance had also begun to thin somewhat. Two horses rounded up on them some metres away, moving towards them determinedly and stopping some distance away from their hiding spot, obscured partially by the fading ball of dust.

"All clear, Commander!" Came Orga's booming voice through the curtain of dirt, sounding triumphant over the receding din. "The enemy forces have been eliminated. We can now resume our mission."

"Mission?" Another voice joined in. Lucy Ashley's.

"If my guess here's right, I reckon we can help you accomplish this mission."

Erza's senses jerked awake that very instance and she tried standing despite her injuries. It hurt like hell, but she still had the strength left to make a couple of metres forward on foot.

"What's the situation?" she asked of her second-in-command, walking through the haze in order to get a clear view of the newcomers on horses.

"Stable, Commander!" Orga replied, looking over his shoulder as if for last minute confirmation. "Except for Melissa, everyone else is ready to depart."

A sharp pain seared Erza's chest as she recollected the form of the lady in question falling to her death in the midst of battle.

"Hey, if you're talking about that brunette with a cleft-chin, she's safe and probably being tended to by our medical division," Lucy Ashley interjected, shrugging her shoulders.

Erza raised a brow in suspicion.

"She fell off a cliff," she said, as if that was explanation enough to denounce the absurdity that Edolas Lucy had just spouted.

Lucy sighed deeply.

"Follow us to our base and you'll understand." She said no further by way of explanation and steered her horse around to start trotting in the opposite direction.

Erza stared after her in amusement.

"Yup, I feel ya," Edolas Levy whispered into her ear as she elbowed past her towards the retreating form of her arch-nemesis.

_I'm losing it I think, _Erza thought sourly to herself as she sheathed her Sabre-Scar, using the now-blunt blade to work as support for limping forward.

To its credit, the erstwhile battle-field did look its part, what with all that blood and demon limbs strewn across at irregular intervals. Fortunately, not many from humanity's side had been made victims – barring the now miraculously alive Melissa, of course – and Erza was ecstatic to note that the situation was somewhat under control.

"We will resume the mission immediately!" she said to her fellow soldiers as she struggled to mount a spare horse all by herself. "As long as there are no serious injuries to tend to, we have no reason to stay back and delay things further."

Not a word of protest came from the assembled crowd – Earthlandians and Edolians alike – and Erza was proud to see that her comrades were all geared up to complete the mission despite just having been through a major setback. And while they did look a little exhausted, Erza refrained from announcing a break despite her reluctance because they were in an extremely unsafe territory.

"Onward!" she said then, finally mounting her horse after what seemed like years of struggle. She grabbed the reins with slightly shaking hands, trying to ignore how her heart seemed ready to jump out of her rib cage any second.

She was merely hours away from a reunion she'd been yearning for since forever and she barely had any ideas regarding how she would deal with the situation. It was a little funny how she was gradually becoming more and more tongue-tied as she traversed every metre of the blood-soaked and barren land. It wasn't her style. It had never been.

And yet, Titania Erza Scarlet found herself fumbling and shaking ever so slightly against a scenario she'd played a countless times in her head by now.

She clapped her hands once before setting off, hoping against hope that the reunion wouldn't cost her her sanity, now that everything in life was _seemingly_ moving towards a happier end.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Erza had expected a long journey from the battle-field to their prospective destination and she'd mentally prepared herself for such a situation to go along with it. The pain in her shoulder had dulled to a mere throb along her triceps, thanks to the strange looking pills she's been offered by Lucy Ashley along the way. Edolian medicines were strange yet effective things.

Parting from the steep cut valleys of the demon high ground, the troop had now entered a gorgeous expanse of hillocks, stretching as far as their eyes could see on the moonlit plane. The journey had now acquired a surprisingly smooth character, part of it because of the boost in morale the original task force had received after help from the Edolians. It'd been an unexpected encounter, yes, but the other world reinforcements had eventually warmed up to the Earthlandians over the due course of the journey. By the time the allied force reached a small intersection of geographical shift between the hillocks and the beginnings of what looked like a dense forest across a narrow river, the two sides behaved as if they'd been working together since the dawn of civilisation.

Erza allowed herself a smile as she witnessed this new found camaraderie while crossing the stream into the opening of the dense jungle.

"Alright People!" Lucy Ashley rounded up on the group as all members finally managed to gather on the other side. "We activate a Shadow Wall from this point onwards. We don't want any eavesdropping and stalking entities to follow us to our base. Not that they are going to find it anyway, but yeah, safety first!"

Orga Nanagear made a face at that. "What the hell is a Shadow Wall?" he asked, speaking on behalf of the entire Earthlandian force that was looking confusedly at strange circular devices Edolas Levy was busy pulling out from a gigantic backpack.

It was Lucy's chance to make a face now.

"You Earthlandians and your ancient technology," she muttered, loud enough for Erza to hear as she was parked right next to her. "It's a Form Concealing device. It helps mask your physical presence to a fault and spiritual presence to a lesser degree than that. Basically, you'll be invisible to the world for a short period of time that's been pre-set on this battery-operated device. Cool stuff, ne?"

The Earthlandian force stood dumbstruck and clueless.

"Duuuuh! _Science_?" Lucy explained, looking at the other-world counterparts as if they were fools. When not a single person seemed to show any amount of recognition or enthusiasm for the explanation offered, Lucy simply clicked her tongue and Levy distributed the devices with an amused smirk on her face.

"Forget what I said, 'kay?" Lucy continued, slightly irritated. "Just click this damn button here at the centre of your _abracadabra spheres-" _she held up her device to display a green button smack in the middle of the little globe like machine "-and whoosh, you shall vanish from the eyes of this earth!" she finished, pressing the button for demonstration. Within a second, she disappeared before their eyes.

"Oh, it's like our ethernano concealing magic! Or Invisibility Magic!" someone from Erza's troop shouted in the background and realisation dawned on the Earhlandians. Erza gingerly pressed the button on her device and felt as if someone was sapping all energy out of her body for a second. A moment later, she felt perfectly normal again.

"Alright now listen carefully!" Lucy exclaimed as the entire troop was done concealing itself. "We can obviously see each other in this state because we are all in the same spatial plane for the moment, but outsiders not using this device can't see us. We will move in a tight formation through the forest in the north-earth direction, three o' clock, and we will come to a halt exactly twenty minutes into the journey. You will feel a sudden disorientation after the said amount of time as we will pass into another spatial plane that's hiding our base, so try not to fall off your horses. Trust me, it's worth it on the other side." She completed with a big grin on her face. "Let's get going!"

With this, the warriors burst into the forest with much enthusiasm, tearing through the trees as if they were simply shadows, not solid objects. Erza felt giddy as she propelled herself forward, certainly an unholy mixture of nerves and the strange Edolian device. In any case, the light-headedness was doing absolutely no good to her, and she was tempted to switch off the damn device to lessen half of the strange kind of pain she was feeling. Alas, her level of determination was way above her measly urges.

Or that was what she thought during the twenty minute span that she travelled through the dense forest. For it was when the group hit the twenty-minute mark that she realised Lucy Ashley hadn't been joking about that disorientation and falling off the horse part. The moment their timer went off to indicate the onset of protective barriers around an Edolian base, Erza felt as if her world was tumbling around her into oblivion, stretching away from her and rolling into a vortex. The medicine numbing the pain in her shoulder waned in its effect all of a sudden, leaving a searing pain behind that threatened to rob her of her consciousness as she struggled to stay upright. She could feel two warriors flanking her on both sides, struggling to stay put in their own ways, but had it not been for her sheer pride as the Commander of Division Four, Erza Scarlet would have fallen off her horse long ago.

Fortunately for her, the disorientation ended as soon as it had started, leaving behind this sudden feeling of emptiness as if her life force had been sucked out of her body. As the group stumbled into an open space very different in its looks than the forest they had been travelling through, Erza blinked her eyes rapidly in order to acclimatise herself to the sudden change in her surroundings.

_Holy… _she muttered under her breath as she took in a quick view of the colossal hallway they had burst into; an impressive, yet strange amalgamation of colossal trees and vine arches of biblical proportions, meeting upwards in the sky to form a grand vaulted ceiling that let sunlight enter in thin streams. It was like a gateway of nature, made out of the very bounty that humankind had never made any contribution to, and Erza wasn't surprised to find that the vines meeting overhead to form those grand archways around twirling branches also spread underneath her feet, creating a breath-taking carpet that muffled the sounds of their arrival.

"Welcome to the base of the United Edolas Army!" Exclaimed Lucy Ashley from somewhere in front of the group, waving her hand in a grand arch to present her surroundings. "We are accommodating about two thousand soldiers from the Edolian Army here for now, and we are in the process of getting more help. This is the first time the two dimensions are collaborating on such a grand scale."

Erza's nose crinkled instantly at that. "Collaborating?" she said, a little annoyed at how she sounded all winded and bleak. "We never signed any deal with you guys! Heck your sudden arrival was a big shock that needs to be explained thoroughly!"

Lucy sighed and beckoned the group forward. "I'll explain everything in a while. Come on in!"

Erza decided to put her foot down here. She had asked no questions back at the battlefield because the situation and timing had been inappropriate, but now that they were inside the apparent safety of a well-hidden base, she found no point in delaying the inevitable. Of course she was happy to meet her Fairy Tail Edolas counterparts, but her troop had other important matters to attend to as well. "This is not a joking matter, Lucy Ashley," she said all of a sudden, her voice a tone deeper now. "We agreed to follow you into your base in hope of an explanation. I need to know what this is all about right now. All connections were lost between your dimension and ours years ago and you really need to spill the beans now," she sounded a little hopeful here, "-Since the rebel forces received no form of communication from Edolas, _who _exactly are you collaborating with?"

"With me."

That simple, to the point answer from some place overhead caught Erza completely off-guard. Guiding her horse to face the appropriate direction, Erza stared straight ahead at the walkway they were supposed to pass through before she demanded an immediate explanation. This segment probably led to the military barracks that Lucy had talked about and it was here that she found the source of that voice she knew _so well._

A voice she had yearned to hear in an eternity.

_Jellal._

Her _Jellal._

It was so sudden that Erza thought the situation to be a little ludicrous. Oh the thousand scenarios she'd painted in her head throughout her journey to this basecamp: from dramatic entries to reunion after a little wait; she'd imagined it all and prepared a response in accordance with the multiple scenarios that she had painted inside her head. An efficient chain of actions to be taken had been prepared wherein Erza believed she would act in a certain way if Jellal said this, and act the other way if he said something different. In all these circumstances, she'd imagined their reunion to be somewhat…_substantial_, if not theatrical, and she was a little disappointed at the prospect of suddenly coming face to face with him as if he hadn't just been away for thirteen long years.

Perhaps, this was what irked Erza the most, as she carefully took in the site of his _slightly _changed form as he walked down the long, carpeted entrance corridor, accompanied by few other Edolas Fairy Tail members like Macao and Wakaba.

Thirteen long years, and he had the _audacity_ to look at her as if they had met over a cup of coffee just last weekend.

_Bastard, _Erza thought to herself in her head, as she dismounted her horse and ignored the beginnings of a mind-numbing pain in her shoulder, triggered by the sudden movement through the invisible barrier protecting the base. Her voice had effectively died in her throat and all she could do was stare – and stare hard at that – as the familiar form of the man she'd so loved (and still loved with all her heart), walked towards her in a simple set of robes. She noticed he had somehow grown a little taller – or was that the slightly increased girth and muscle mass that made him look a bit bigger than before? – but apart from that, there didn't seem to be any other significant change in him. He was still the Jellal that she'd always known; with his slightly boyish features now hardening into the squares and angles of a thirty-nine year old man (was that the beginning of a stubble that she was seeing?), but still the Jellal that had always been hers.

Seeing him standing in front of her like this gave her the kind of warm feeling inside her heart that she thought she had never been capable of experiencing. It seemed to have a direct connection to her eyes, as the first signs of tears appeared around their corners and threatened to flow downwards.

Alas, this reunion had to have its share of drama.

Love and warmth all evaporating into something bitter and more unpleasant within seconds, Erza realised her fists had clenched of their own accord and that she was now moving towards the approaching figure of Jellal with only one thought in mind. Such was her determination to accomplish this job, that Erza paid no heed to the sudden pain that had begun to shoot up her injured arm, causing the muscles underneath to vibrate unpleasantly with the added pressure of her clenched fist.

_He needs this, _she thought to herself as she neared the person in question, levelling him with a gaze that could kill.

Jellal made to move forward, holding out both hands as if to give an awkward hug-cum-handshake, but Erza ignored that gesture, her own hand – the injured one – moving backwards as she prepared herself for a shot. Letting out a short, purposeful breath, she pivoted slightly on her left heel and drove the fist home into Jellal's nose, satisfied when she heard the resulting crunch.

There were loud gasps from the crowd watching and Erza thought she heard Levy exclaim '_mother of all things holy' _in a rather scandalous fashion as Jellal spun on the spot, his hand shooting up to his now bleeding nose, eyes unfocused.

"You deserved that," Erza whispered into his ears, before something nauseous went up her throat and she promptly passed out from sheer exhaustion and held-back pain.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

A muffled voice buzzing somewhere in her vicinity pushed her back to consciousness.

The first thing that came into her line of sight was a very blurry picture of a strange canopy of green net, interspersed here and there with flower vines, added for the sake of some aesthetic appeal. Above that netted covering, a ceiling made out of gigantic logs registered itself into her senses and Erza blinked her droopy eyes in order to be able to move her head to the left and right with success. It look some effort, considering how her brain felt as if it had suddenly been replaced by a block of lead, but she persevered and forced herself to a position where she could take in her surroundings from a three sixty degrees angle.

"Where the hell am I?" she croaked to the heavens, her uninjured arm slipping out from underneath a thin blanket to feel around the mattress that she was lying on. Imagine her surprise when that hand was suddenly grabbed by a larger, much warmer one the next instance.

"It's okay, Erza," said a very familiar voice. "You're someplace safe."

Erza tried to sit up, her senses suddenly jerking awake and her muscles tensing, but something inside her own system pulled her back pretty violently.

"Ow," she muttered, as her head hit the pillow and everything around her spun for a moment – the ceiling, the damned canopy over the bed and the surrounding walls.

"Are you okay?" That voice again. Erza felt the person shifting swiftly by her side and hovering above her. "You need to rest-"

"Rest my _ass!" _Erza hissed, fighting back the numbness and dull pain and getting up all of a sudden with determination as her crutch. "I need some answers first-" she looked to her left, eyes focusing on the person concerned "-Jellal Fernandes."

Jellal looked guilty, and appropriately so. Facing the question at full force now, he turned his olive eyes away in shame and his shoulders sagged a little. He was sitting on a wooden stool next to her bed, a bottle of medicine in his hands which he then put away.

"I promise I'll explain everything, Erza," he said, and here, Erza let go of a little bit of her anger because she was intoxicated by the very way in which he had said her name, "-you really need to rest first."

"I'm fine," Erza lied, looking away. During the period that she'd passed out, someone had changed her into a pretty looking kaftan that hung loosely off her shoulders, exposing the bandage underneath her right arm. Instinctively, she tried rotating the joint and was delighted to find that it had probably been treated using some kind of magic. Basically, instant and regenerative healing.

"Does it hurt now?" Jellal asked tenderly, noticing the way she gave an experimental tug to the injured part.

"No," Erza replied a little curtly, eyes still turned away from ones that had the power to dissolve all of her anger within seconds.

"Are you feeling dizzy?"

Erza snorted. He sounded more like a doc now. "Nope," she said.

"How...how did that happen?" he was pointing at her prosthesis which was peeking out from underneath the thin blanket.

"A battle. Nothing serious. I'm used to it by now."

There was a weighted pause where Jellal probably contemplated continuing down the same line of conversation. Turned out, he changed course at the last minute.

"Do you need something to drink? Do you need some water?"

Erza had almost declined the offer before she realised her throat could do with some liquids. She nodded mutely, still looking away.

There was the sound of earthen ware being rubbed against each other and liquid being poured out. Next second, a cup of water was pushed underneath her nose.

"Thanks." Erza whispered blandly, snatching the glass from those warm, big hands and gulping the water down like she hadn't taken anything fluid in ages. It was then that she suddenly realised something and raised her hand to make a vague gesture with her nose after she had put the cup down.

Jellal probably understood what she was trying to get at and he sighed. "It's fine. A little crooked, I suppose, but fine."

Erza felt the guilt rushing in through the floodgates now. She resisted the urge to look, but her heart and mind did not seem to be working in tandem with each other. Therefore, turning her head around a little, she tried observing her handiwork with a sideway glance, her own nose scrunched up in annoyance to make a point.

He was right. It did look a little crooked.

"Can you do some basic kind of healing magic?" she asked then, her voice, a mere whisper.

Jellal nodded. "I've some amount of ethernano with me right now. Do you need me to heal you?"

Erza said nothing as she turned around to face him completely.

"Not on me," she said, raising a fist and promptly punching him in the nose. Again.

There was a sharp groan of pain as Jellal grabbed his nose and looked at her with slight disbelief, teetering on the edge of his stool.

"Move your hands away," Erza said simply, trying to look unaffected, but wincing inwardly. Jellal relented without a struggle.

Pinching the broken nose at the bridge, Erza readjusted the supple cartilage to a normal position before it started to heal over again. After a few attempts, she was able to shape it back into the right structure and gestured for Jellal to complete the process by himself.

"Won't be crooked now," she muttered, and she was sure she heard that infuriating man _chuckle_ as he set about channelling a blue aura into his nose, powered obviously by a lacrima crystal embedded in his wrist.

"You are right. I deserved it," he said, once he was done with the healing. "In fact, I deserve much, much more than that."

Erza said nothing in response for a few seconds, choosing to remain silent and brood in order to go ahead with her rightful tantrums. "Why don't you give me a good reason to believe you then," she said then – hissed, rather – looking away again. "Go on, tell me why I need to do much more harm than that. Go on, tell me why you decided to hide from me for two bloody years, deciding to slither in the shadows and catching me during some… highly personal moments?" she blushed a little here, but held her ground as memories from a night two years ago resurfaced.

Jellal spluttered a little at that and almost fell head-first onto the floor.

"I- the- I – that-" he mumbled, probably turning the same shade as Erza's hair. "I d-didn't mean to,"

"Get to the point."

"Oh well…" he began, flustered yet determined, but they were interrupted at this point by a loud knock on the wooden door leading into the tiny room.

Both Erza and Jellal jumped in their positions.

"Who is it?" Jellal asked over his shoulder, slight irritation pulling his brows in the middle.

"It's me, Lucy," came a muffled voice from the others side of the door, and Erza rolled her eyes. "Lunch's ready!"

Jellal's shoulders sagged. "Alright. I'm coming!" he said. "Give me two minutes."

There was a mutter of approval from the other side of the door and soon the two were left alone again.

"I guess this will have to wait then," sighed Jellal, turning his head back around and trying not to look into a pair of brown eyes that was two seconds away from shooting venom at him. "I'm sorry, Erza. If I ever hurt you…which I'm sure I did. Trust me. I'll explain everything, but you need to have something to eat first. You have been out for nearly twelve hours."

Erza raised a brow. "_Twelve_ hours?" she mumbled, taken aback because her injury had certainly not been that big a deal. Heck she hadn't even been so out of it back when she had lost her leg, so she was amused, to the say the least.

Nevertheless, the sudden grumble issuing from her stomach introduced her to more pressing issues for the moment and she nodded her approval hesitantly.

Jellal allowed himself a small smile. "Alright," he said. "Wait here. I'll get you something to eat."

Erza's hand shot out to grab his as he got up to leave.

"Hold it. I'm coming." She declared, preparing herself to get off the bed before Jellal reached out and held her by her shoulders to keep her in place.

"You're not in the condition," he said, flinching back almost as soon his hands made contact with Erza's skin. "I mean, you need to rest some more."

"I'm absolutely fine," Erza insisted a little more forcefully, making a second attempt at getting up, this time, without any interference. She was very good at getting her point across, and her constantly bettering internal condition was definitely helping out.

To her benefit, she'd never been the kind to remain chained to a stretcher for more than half a day max.

Once she was out of the bed and had readjusted her knee-length kaftan, Jellal couldn't say anything to defer her. Even he knew when to give up when dealing with Titania.

"Alright," he conceded, shrugging his shoulders and moving sideways to give her some space. "But you need to come back to rest after lunch…okay?"

Erza looked mildly annoyed in response. "Don't order me around," she said, although with no real venom as she walked the length of the room and wrenched open the wooden door, only to be blinded by the light hitting her in the eyes.

She blinked. And then she blinked again.

"Where the hell are we?" she mumbled to herself, but her question was audible to Jellal who now stood behind her at a respectable distance, glancing over her shoulder.

"The basecamp?" he said uncertainly and Erza clicked her tongue.

"I know that," she said, "but this-" _certainly doesn't look like one… _she completed in her head, eyes appraising the scenery laid out before her.

From what she could gauge of her surroundings, they seemed to be standing at the threshold of a one-roomed treehouse, built with the finest quality of wood and embellished accordingly. Around her, the forest stood proudly in all its glory, gigantic trees with hanging branches and bright green leaves swaying gently with the wind coming in through the west. Around their little treehouse, several other thick trunked trees sported similar housing arrangements, all laid out in a neat pattern as far as the eyes could see. In the distance, Erza could swear she was able to discern the figure of what looked like a colossal auditorium made out of wood, standing tall beside a shimmering strip of what could possibly be a stream.

She'd imagined the base to be a boring military hideout with high walls and multiple protective barriers. Look what kind of surprises life was capable of meting out at certain occasions.

"Actually, we _are_ surrounded by several layers of protective enchantments," Jellal interrupted her thought process, as if reading her mind. "It's just that, we made the extra effort to make our camp look like it's out in the open."

"So this is an illusion?" Erza inquired, impressed. She was slightly thrown off particularly when she couldn't differentiate between reality and fiction when she closed her right eye.

"Yes and no," Jellal said, shrugging. When Erza turned to look at him with raised brows, he held up his hands in surrender. "Edolian science and technology," he explained. "They have progressed a lot over the years. You would need to do a proper study course in order to understand the dynamics behind this kind of…well, magic."

While Erza could still not understand what kind of twisted Edolian technology was capable of making such a spectacular illusion (how long had it been since Earthland had lost its magic again?), she accepted it nevertheless and turned left towards a set of staircase leading to ground level. The spiralling stairway wound itself around the thick branch upon which the one-roomed hut had been built and it was completely covered by a thick blanket of creepers shooting upwards towards the higher branches.

_Ah! The little touches of aesthetic brilliance,_ she mused.

Once on the ground, Jellal offered to lead the way through the camp towards what Erza guessed was the mess. Relenting, she fell into step behind him as he guided her through a column of life-sized trees that stood one after the other in a neat pattern. While the camp itself did not seem to be teeming with activity (maybe a majority of the inhabitants were at the mess because of lunch time?), she did come across a few people at irregular intervals throughout the journey, carrying some form of weapon or the other. From their dressing styles and accents, Erza figured they were from Edolas, but she also managed to spot a couple of natives from Earthland. Basically, all signs of Jellal living on Earthland for two years and gathering an army without her knowledge.

The anger bubbled back to the surface as the person in question led her to the large auditorium like building she had seen from a distance. She watched the back of his head with the intensity of a person ready to commit homicide, and she had to chain all of those delicious urges down to be able to even walk straight. A part of her was in the mood to grab him by the collar, turn him around and punch him in the nose again, but another part of her regretted having done that before in the first place. These conflicting emotions inside felt like putting a foot each into two boats and then letting them glide in opposite directions.

They travelled on for what seemed like ages, before Jellal stopped in front of the colossal building that turned out to be much bigger than what Erza had imagined. It did look like one of those auditoriums she had worked at for part-time jobs during summer breaks pre-apocalypse, but this one was more _natural-looking_, for lack of better words, and more majestic.

"This is a mess-cum-storehouse for weapons," Jellal explained as he guided her into the building. "I know it sounds a little weird, but we wanted all important places to be at the same spot. Saves us the effort of travelling in different directions during emergencies."

Erza hummed to show interest as she now entered a gigantic hall which was nothing but a simple space filled with two long rows of tables. The kitchen was probably towards the far end of the hall because that was what Erza could make of a small opening from where smoke was issuing.

"Come, have a seat," Jellal guided her towards an empty table which was right next to the one where Edolas Gray was busy fawning over Edolas Juvia. Along the way, she received several raised brows and apprehensive glances, all from Edolians who had probably been told to lay off for she was not their queen, but they still looked pretty much winded. Erza wondered if her Edolas counterpart was still of the _strict_ variety.

And then she laughed when she remembered just what exactly Knightwalker was capable of.

After all, some things were just not capable of changing with time.

"I'll go get something to eat," Jellal offered, gesturing for Erza to sit, but the latter shook her head and didn't move an inch. "I'll help myself," she looked in all directions before her eyes came to rest on a long table set some metres away from the kitchen, lined up with all sorts of dishes and manned by volunteers serving food. Nostalgia gripped her as she thought about the meals back in Division Four and she briefly wondered if her unit was alright and doing well without her.

It was a simple affair, the food. The buffet consisted of a three-course meal with simple vegetables and meat, some salad and what looked like sweet balls made out of rice and sugar for dessert. Loading her plate with enough food to help her through the week (she was utterly famished), Erza walked back to the table they had previously singled out, leaving Jellal behind. She was trying her best to convey her annoyance and anger through her actions, but it infuriated her further that the man at whom all of this was directed, showed no signs of being affected. True he looked guilty, filling his own plate while simultaneously glancing at her through the corner of his eyes; but that element of hurt, of rejection that Erza wanted to see on his face was missing. It felt like a big slap on her face because the Jellal in front of her was the Jellal she'd always known; guilty because of his past, not because of the fact that he had left her in the dark for two years.

"Yo!" a familiar voice broke Erza out of her thoughts as she neared the table. Looking up, she spotted Lucy Ashley and Edolas Natsu sitting side-by-side on the said spot. The former was attacking a plate of rice and meat while the latter was busy sweating for no apparent reason. Gray and Juvia from the other table had also turned their chairs around to join the two.

"That was quick," Lucy commented, wiping some curry from her face with a sleeve. "Up and about before I estimated? Do you really think it's a good idea for you to be out of bed right now?"

Erza rotated her injured shoulder vigorously in response.

"That lays my argument to rest," Lucy said then, chuckling into her plate. Natsu looked nervously between the two ladies.

"This feels a little weird you know," Edolas Juvia commented, performing a once-over on Erza. "The Queen's come to have lunch with us."

"Ah! How very observant, Juvia-chan!" Edolas Gray chimed, blushing and looking admiringly at his object of affections who simply looked back at him as if he were a sea slug.

Erza was practically drowning in nostalgia by this point. "Do you mind…" she said to Lucy, who looked up at her as if she was mad.

"Of course not," she said, scooting a little to allow space at the table. "Join in."

Setting down her tray, Erza drew a stool from the nearby empty table and set it between the two other females.

"Speaking of the Queen," she ventured, taking a bite of some curry chicken, "Where is she at the moment? What about the king?"

"They are in Edolas for now," came the reply from a person she had not asked the question to. "They are sending in more forces by the minute and they visit us every once in a while."

Jellal Fernandes had caught up with her and was currently drawing a stool from the same empty table to park it beside her. A sudden, most strange amalgamation of irritation and jubilance passed through her the moment she felt him dropping his tray next to hers and taking a seat.

"We are increasing in number by the minute, literally. A lot of Earthlandians have joined us over the last two years and we expect a lot more to join us in the future. I guess it's time to let the rebel army know."

Erza was two seconds away from gasping conspiratorially at how nonchalant Jellal sounded around her while talking about his self-imposed exile.

"Oh," she said then, trying to stabilise her voice as it shook slightly with anger. "You mean the two years that you have been on Earthland without letting people who care about you know that you are alive? Looks like you've been gathering quite an army for yourself while I kept thinking you to be dead."

The table went eerily silent at that. Even Edolas Juvia looked a little unsettled in the aftermath of Erza's little confession.

Jellal, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.

"Uuuuh…hehe, have you heard of Figpine though? It's a special Edolian drink which I think you should totally try out," Lucy Ashely cut through the tension with an awkward laugh, beckoning forward a timid looking Edolian who was passing by with two glasses in his hand. "It goes well with meat you know?" She pushed one glass under Erza's nose for better effect. "Great flavour and stuff. I have a feeling this is going to be love at first…well, gulp."

Erza practically snatched the glass and brought it to her lips, eyes burning holes through the table in front.

"Would you like some too, Jellal?" Lucy asked then, her voice still carrying that distinct quality of nervousness.

"Sure."

Erza figured she'd tasted better drinks than the one she was trying out with the meat as complement, considering how it felt like a cheap, unholy mixture of red wine, beer and a drop of lemon juice. Or maybe, she was feeling this way because she was sitting next to a certain someone who was currently responsible for leaving a bitter taste in her mouth?

She couldn't decide.

Nevertheless, she chugged the drink as if her life depended on it, mildly annoyed that Lucy hadn't informed her the drink was alcoholic, but then not giving a damn at the same time. She figured she could do with some pleasant buzz to distract herself, because the urge to strangulate a certain blue haired fellow was threatening to consume her whole.

"More." She demanded, once she'd practically wiped clean her first glass. With a force that could split the wood in half, Erza brought down her glass and slammed it against the table.

From Lucy's expression, one could figure she wouldn't have declined Erza's request to bring over a mountain, the drink being nothing more than a welcome inconvenience.

"I don't see why not," she said therefore, beckoning forward another dude who acquiesced within half a second. This time, the table welcomed an entire pitcher full of the disgusting yet strangely alluring drink.

"Cheers!" Lucy exclaimed, passing the pitcher around and urging her table mates to dig in.

Two glasses turned into four in no time, and Erza could still not feel the intoxication settle in. True she had started to experience that slight buzz one usually gets while consuming alcohol, but she never reached a point where she couldn't distinguish a table from a chair. Being quite the angry drunk feared across Magnolia in older times, she reckoned she was better off _not _pushing her limits. But then, there were some things that she needed to get off her thought process altogether.

"Don't worry about being hammered though," Lucy explained, taking a sip herself. "This one doesn't do shit no matter how many glasses you take. We have stronger drinks for that. Figpine's enough to give you a slight buzz that's all-" and then she went on and on about the properties of the drink, how it was made, and during what occasions was it usually consumed in Edolas. Erza skimmed through much of the explanation as she focused on tearing apart the chicken leg on her plate, simultaneously avoiding looking to her left lest she allowed Jellal to fall anywhere into her line of sight.

The man in question was understandably silent through the affair, choosing to finish his meal over making conversation at the table. Occasionally, he stopped to refill his glass from the pitcher, but he otherwise remained silent through the meal and this suited Erza whose anger levels were in the ascendant.

"Where exactly are my teammates?" she asked of Lucy, as if she'd suddenly realised she'd woken up with her division members nowhere in sight. She was a little ashamed of such behaviour on her part, but then, there was also the matter of her mind otherwise being full of affairs that had the potential to snatch away her sanity.

"They are all fine. Being tended to by the docs," Lucy said through a mouthful of rice. "And your cleft-chin girl's alright by the way."

This piqued Erza's interest and she stopped midway through her booze drinking session. The last time Lucy had mentioned something along the lines of Melissa being alright in the hands of the medical team, she'd attributed the blonde's ludicrous claim to battle nerves and trauma. Apparently, there was more to the situation than she'd originally given it credit for.

"She fell off a cliff," she said plainly, repeating what she'd said the last time Lucy had made the claim. "Or did I miss something here?"

"The latter, actually," Lucy said, shrugging her shoulders. "It's a little complicated and over-the-top, but yeah, our copter managed to save her at the nick of time."

"A _what?"_

"Copter?" Lucy's forehead creased as she tried to think of a suitable description.

"It's like Christina in her older days," Jellal offered, treading the hot water cautiously. "Only a lot smaller in size and faster."

Erza was annoyed with that intrusion, but she accepted the explanation nevertheless. The alcohol was doing its bit, she figured.

"So yeah, that's how we saved her," Lucy continued, making vague gestures with her hand that mimicked cushioning a fall. "I mean the very fact that it went as far as her losing her balance is poor thinking on our part, but the plan went as smoothly as we'd predicted."

For a second, Erza accepted the information given with a slight nod, almost going back to digging into her meal with satisfaction, but then something about the statement made caught up with her as a late reaction, causing her to pause and look sideways.

It was then that she noticed the look of terror on Lucy Ashley's face.

"Said something you shouldn't have said, I figure," Erza hissed, setting down her spoon and facing the blonde completely. To her left, Jellal shifted uncomfortably on his seat.

"So," Erza began, her anger bubbling on the surface. "What is this plan that you talk of, if you will be kind enough to enlighten me."

"I…well…" Lucy said in a mere whisper, trying to look anywhere but into Erza's eyes. "You see, it's a long story-"

"Don't waste my time," Erza cut in, her voice shaking with the anger that was consuming her from within. She didn't like being rude to people she was good friends with and it pained her to adopt such a tone with Lucy's Edolas counterpart. However, there were things that needed to be done, explanations that needed to be given. Being the commander of Division Four, Erza had a bunch of responsibilities that came above everything else.

"So, you getting to the point or I try looking around your base for some answers."

There was a minute's pause at the table, followed by a nervous cough that was probably Natsu Dragion's doing.

"I…"Lucy began, her shoulders drooping as she gave in and got ready for some explanation. However, she was interrupted the next second by Jellal who took it upon himself to make a clean breast of affairs.

"It's okay Lucy. You don't have to do this," he said, prompting Erza to turn around and look at him _properly_ for the first time since their reunion. She hadn't realised until now that he was sitting quite close to her, the edge of their stools meeting. Up close, Erza could count the tiny, almost invisible lines that had begun to form around his eyes and mouth, indications of his age. And yet, despite such obvious vestiges of the years gone by, he looked every bit as handsome as she'd always known him to be.

"It's all my fault," he said, and Erza could smell the Edolian drink in his breath, saturating his every word. "The plan, the setback. Everything."

Erza tried not to appreciate his lips that were looking all wet and nice in the short distance.

"What do you mean?" she said instead, eyes snapping back to look into his olive ones swimming in guilt.

"Let's take this conversation somewhere else. It's a…long story and-"

"I NEED SHIT EXPLAINED RIGHT NOW!" Erza practically shot up from her chair, fists banging the table and unsettling the plates and glasses kept on it. The entire hall went silent following her outburst, faces turning to look at her with terror written on them. Natsu Dragion had ducked underneath the table the very next second and Edolas Gray looked like he was two seconds away from pissing his pants.

"I've had enough of this dilly-dallying! You know how long it has been, Jellal? Thirteen years! _Thirteen_ FUCKING years! And then you waltz back into the picture without a word, withou leaving a note, thinking everything would be fine that way?"

"Erza-"

"You _have_ to explain this to me! I'm not taking any of your long stories right now! What is this thing about plans and failures! Don't tell me you used _my _division as a pawn-"

Jellal grabbed her hand at this point. And he grabbed it hard.

"Come with me," he said simply, his voice flat and emotionless. He looked at Lucy for a second and something passed between the two, and then he was moving towards the exit with Erza in tow.

"What the-" the latter mumbled, taken aback. She tried struggling against his grip, but it turned out to be too strong and determined for her to resist. Submitting to the sudden change in situation, and hoping it would lead to at least some kind of explanation on his part, Erza let herself be dragged back the path they had previously traversed. They were obviously heading towards that little tree house where she'd woken up from her twelve hour slumber.

Once inside the familiar surroundings, Erza took a deep breath to settle her shaking muscles and turned to look at a sombre Jellal who was busy shutting the door.

"Now. Explain." She said simply, crossing her arms across her chest and waiting for him to frame his first sentence.

"It was my plan," he began finally, moving inwards towards the bed beside which Erza was standing, yet making the effort to maintain some distance. There was caution in his step and a frown upon his lips, but his eyes were burning with a fire of determination that Erza hadn't seen in a long time.

"I came back two years ago after my treatment in Edolas. I was severely injured after the FACE incident and Edolas helped me back on my feet. It took me eleven years in Earthland time, which is actually a lot more according to Edolian standards because I had fallen into a coma after the blast," he paused.

"By the time I came back to my senses, the Anima like portal that had been responsible for transporting me to Edolas had widened somewhat, creating a passageway between the two worlds that had apparently been used by some Edolian soldiers before I woke up. The Anima was probably created when FACE partially activated itself, creating a vortex in space when it started destroying the ethernano particles. When I intervened to shut it down, I disturbed that vortex which had been created and the disturbance sliced through the inter-dimensional plane and transported me to Edolas."

"The Edolian soldiers who had been visiting Earthland in my absence told me everything about the situation back here and I desperately wanted to help…but I wasn't in the condition…" Here he looked a bit off, as if there was something more that he wished to say, but decided to go against it eventually by bursting forward into his explanation.

"When I finally healed, I spoke to the emperor, Mystogan, and he was ready to help me out before I even said a word about it to him. He said he was indebted to our world and to Fairy Tail, so there was no way he could sit back and watch our world crumble to ashes. He assembled a sophisticated army for this purpose and dispatched it two years ago, Earthland time."

"And that's when you came down with the army and created this basecamp," Erza added, eliciting a nod from Jellal.

"I figured the rebels might have traced my ethernano print by the time I came back, because it had practically been all over the place when I was transported to Edolas for the first time. I…I had a feeling you must have made the effort to do a survey of the area to find my body,"

"And yet you said nothing, sent no word the moment you came back two years ago?" Erza cut in, anger cresting once again.

"I had a reason, Erza," Jellal sighed, his shoulders slumping as he walked towards the stool pitched next to the bed. Sitting down, he took a deep breath and let his head fall into his hands, continuing his story through the gaps in between his fingers.

"I… when I came back to Earthland, all I was focused on doing was somehow making contact with the rebel army. It seemed like an easy job at first glance, considering how your side had probably figured out I was still alive and looking for me…but then, there was a side of the battle I had failed to calculate during my stay in Edolas and it came back to bite us all in the most inopportune of moments." He took a deep breath.

"I returned with a massive Edolian army, thinking that we would be able to use the increasing number to our advantage. Turns out, Edolians themselves are no match against the demons. While their technology is advanced enough to cause some serious damage to the lower category demons, it's not capable of damaging the higher classed ones. At least, not with the kind of weapons they have in their stockpile at the moment. Also, our initial plan of luring pockets of demons out by using human bait never worked because the demons can only detect the presence of those who are capable of absorbing ethernano. In other words, mages like us."

"But isn't that an advantage to the Edolians?" Erza asked, slightly confused. "If demons can't detect the Edolians's presence, we can jolly well use this as a cover to infiltrate their base."

"There's a catch though," Jellal explained, a sad smile playing on his lips as he raised his head to look intently at the mat underneath his feet. "Presence masking works both ways. The lower and middle class demons work by detecting the faint ethernano signature in erstwhile mages. If they spot a large chunk of it in one place, they attack. As far as the higher and superior class demons are concerned, they don't even need to look for such signatures. They have enough human intelligence to know who's for their rule and who's against it. That's why they are sitting on their high thrones right now, convinced that there is no real threat from decapitated mages and letting the lesser powerful of their kind do the policing. That is how a curse works. So if a demon can't detect the presence of an Edolian, an Edolian can't either, unless they are within a certain range."

"In other words, the Edolians are practically shooting arrows into the dark and their technology is pretty much underutilised at the moment," Erza added, nodding slightly. "Then how did Lucy Ashley and the others fight against them today?"

"As I said, this signature masking effect works only outside a certain range. Within that range, a proper battle is possible. Then there's also the matter of Lucy Ashley and the others being trained Edolian fighters with enough battle experience to inflict some serious damage."

"Technically, this is _our _battle at the end of the day. The Edolians might be enthusiastic to help us out for various reasons, but they just cannot, beyond a certain point. We can use their superior surveillance technology to map terrains, prepare strategies and construct battle machines, but we can't substitute human fighting talent with machines. At least, not with their level of technology as it is right now. It's improving gradually, yes, but it will not work beyond a certain level. After all, they never built their technology thinking they would someday need it to fight against demons they can't even detect beyond a certain range."

Erza nodded as she carefully absorbed the information.

"When they first got to know of this drawback, the Edolians thought they were simply being a burden to our side. Obviously, we needed numbers and they knew it, but their technology wasn't helping us out the way they had imagined it would. At that point, we only had a couple of Earthlandians by our side and my powers, too, had weakened after I recovered from the coma… we tried building our strength in the shadows after that, creating a basecamp and charting out territories in silence so that we could interfere as less as possible with the rebels' battle. We didn't want to startle you guys with the sudden intrusion of a thousand Edolian soldiers. There needed to be some substantial development on our part to able to join hands with the revolutionaries."

"But that doesn't really explain your desire to remain in the shadows for two years," Erza cut in, her brows pulled in the middle. "You could have sent in a word at least, assuring us that you were alive and well. You… you came to visit once, didn't you?"

At this point, Jellal looked like he was ready to give up. He leant back on his seat, his shoulders hitting the wooden wall behind and his eyes looking right past Erza's crouched form to gaze at the wall opposite. He was in the middle of a deep mental battle from the looks of it, the frown on his face and the light bead of sweat on his brow, outward indications of this fact.

"I did, yeah," he admitted, staring at his favourite spot unblinkingly. "I wanted to come out and tell you the truth, but…I, I just couldn't, Erza… It'd been eleven years…eleven years is a long time. Long enough to move on."

"And you thought I had moved on?"

"Yes. Yes I did. And I _knew_ for a fact that you _had _moved on, somewhere deep down."

Erza chuckled bitterly and pushed her weight against the nearest bedpost, wincing a little as the metal gracing her right leg gave its occasional click.

"I hate to break this to you, Jellal Fernandes, but you are no mind reader."

There was a beat of silence following Erza's bitter declaration and Jellal tore his eyes from the wall to look into Erza's piercing ones. They stood in that position for what seemed like hours hereafter; Erza leaning against the bedpost, arms crossed, eyes determined; Jellal slouched into his seat, eyes emotionless.

"If you think I had moved on," Erza continued, fighting against the angry tears that had begun to sprout from the corners of her eyes. "'-then you are sourly mistaken. If I looked alright to you back then, that was mainly because I went forward with the belief that you were still alive. Lo and behold! I wasn't mistaken, was I?"

"There are things which are just not possible, Erza. You can't fight against destiny." Jellal retorted, his voice as flat as it had always been. Somehow, he had even lost that self-deprecating, repentant tone that he used to carry back in the day.

"And you are going to decide my destiny now, are you?" Erza countered, not missing a beat.

"No, but I'm going to tell you that I _planned_ for you and your comrades to come out in the open in order to lure out the demons that attacked you. That batch had been a thorn in our side for a very long time and we decided to use you guys as a _bait, _for lack of better terminology, to lure them out and finish them off once and for all."

Erza was effectively silenced at this point, for the words that had been about to come out as reflex died completely on their way out.

"Yes. That's the plan Lucy talked about. I hope I don't have to remind you that you almost lost a comrade because of my plan."

Erza was still incapable of forming words.

"You see things clearly now, don't you? This is the difference between people who walk the path of light and people who travel in the darkness. I knew Hibiki Laytis had figured out my position. In fact, I _let _him figure out my position. It isn't that difficult for me to manage my ethernano signature. I did it on purpose. I did it _all _on purpose."

In lieu of the words that she couldn't take out, Erza's fists had started to shake by this point.

"I knew you would send someone to find me. It was an opportunity that I just couldn't let go. I released my ethernano print, let you take a route I knew had been infiltrated by the demons and _used_ you guys to destroy-"

A loud _crack _reverberating through the room walls halted Jellal in his tracks. His head jerking to the right, he almost fell onto the bed as the back of Erza's left hand made contact with his face.

"Lie to me again," she growled, yanking him up by grabbing his collar and shaking him violently, "-and I will seriously consider _not _holding back for the next one and breaking your jaw instead."

Jellal winced as he let himself be thrashed around by a fiery redhead.

"I have known you long enough, Jellal Fernandes," she continued, "Known you _long_ _enough_ to know that you're a pathetic liar and that you never _look me in the eye when you lie_. That look you shared with Lucy back in the mess…you were thanking her, weren't you? Thanking her for letting a simple world _slip_ so that I could have my suspicions? You need to try a little better next time."

"I-"

"Just shut up for a second and tell me exactly why you think staying apart is destiny for us. Enlighten me, Jellal. Let me in on a secret you have been keeping with yourself so that I can at least understand where you come from?"

Jellal stayed silent for a moment, probably thinking through his next words. "It's simple actually," he began, but before he could proceed any further, Erza interrupted with him an angry retort-

"And please, don't say anything if your answer's somewhere along the lines of your hands having blood on them, or you travelling the path of darkness and blah blah blah, because honestly, I have had enough of that."

Pin-drop silence followed her outburst, shadowed almost immediately by the sound of heavy breathing filling in what little space had been left between the two occupants of the room. In her enthusiasm to get her point across, Erza hadn't realised that she had moved a little too close for comfort to Jellal, their noses an inch away from brushing against each other and their breaths mingling. The faint odour of figpine saturated the air in that little space between their parted lips, the smell of which caused Jellal to recoil and trace an inch back.

However, despite his desperate attempt to get as far as he could, and despite that expression on his face which screamed protest, Jellal did not utter a word in response. Instead, he stared at the wonder of a lady in front of him, dumbstruck, his mouth hanging open a little.

"Go on, I'm waiting," Erza egged him on, shaking his collar again. Unfortunately for her, she seemed to have lost that sharpness she'd exhibited while first grabbing his collar nearly seven seconds ago. The stench of alcohol was probably doing a number on her now because her muscles had started to feel as if they'd been forced into a state of relaxation.

Jellal, too, had lost the ability to react in any physically significant way, it appeared. Standing prone in her grip, his eyes wide, he desperately fumbled for words.

"Don't have an answer, do you?" Erza said triumphantly, releasing the collar finally and standing back on her feet from her toes. "Or do you still have some fight left in you?"

Sighing, Jellal slumped back into his seat and looked away, taking his sweet time doing so. "I sincerely hope that I do have some of it left in me, though."

Erza chuckled as she looked past the insincerity of the statement made. "Am I that bad to spend time with?" she said with a note of bitterness in her tone. "Do you really not-"

"No Erza – I…I didn't mean it that way…I-"

"Then what's stopping you? What's holding you back? Don't _you _think it's been too long? Don't _you _think thirteen years is long enough time to…to let go?"

"…If only it were that easy."

They fell into a companionable silence after this point, Jellal sitting on the stool and facing the bed, while Erza standing in front of him with her eyes looking into the opposite direction at the door. With her free hand hooked onto the elbow of her injured arm, Erza swayed gently on the spot as she lost the fight against her inner emotions and let them take over. While the Edolian alcoholic beverage hadn't been much of a shocker in terms of its intoxication value, it was still capable of creating a slight buzz in her head which was currently making her feel as if she were floating in space. It was a good kind of feeling, she guessed, which was surprising because Erza Scarlet had never been a big fan of letting her emotions take over. For her to feel relaxed in a state that should have otherwise induced panic…she figured she needed to have more of that drink in the near future.

Then there was also the fact that the figpine in her system was currently responsible for letting her confidence take over.

The kind of confidence that had nothing to do with her battle prowess and overall persona; but the kind of confidence that had everything in the world to do with her ability to express a love she'd repressed for thirteen long years.

That's probably why she did not flinch, nor did she hesitate as she reached forward with her uninjured left arm and hooked it onto Jellal's sleeve, urging him to stand up. The man gave her a confused look as he rose to his feet, but he conceded without a word. Once up straight, he looked down into her eyes with apprehension written all over his face.

"Is something the matter?-" he began, but he was effectively cut off his speech the moment he felt Erza's lips land on his.

The feeling was something that did not come to him immediately after the electrifying touch.

Digging her nails into the shirt material around his shoulders, Erza kept her eyes tightly shut as she insistently pressed her lips to his, not daring to move an inch. It was more like a gentle press than any real action, for Jellal seemed to have frozen all over. His lips unmoving, he stood rooted on the spot, eyes wide, breath caught in his throat.

_I love you. Don't you see it? _Erza screamed inside her head, hopeful that if she tried harder, Jellal would be able to get the sentiment through their locked lips. Unfortunately, nothing of that sort happened and the man in question stood transfixed and possibly horrified, his hands having frozen in their way up to her shoulders.

A single tear threatened to roll down Erza's cheek as she stood there with her lips pressed to his, hands gripping his collar as if her life depended on it. Unlike the last time he had tried kissing her on a beach years ago, there seemed to be a strong sense of misguided responsibility emanating from him this time, holding him from even moving his lips apart. This very idea was what caused Erza to finally jerk back as she desperately tried to keep her tears in.

"I-I'm sorry," she mumbled through a hiccough, adjusting her kaftan as it threatened to slip off her shoulder. "I shouldn't have done that," she added, although it hurt like hell to even think of such a possibility. "I guess I'll leave then."

She turned around, having made up her mind that she would go back to the mess and ask Lucy for a stronger brand of alcohol, but she was interrupted when a hand suddenly snaked around her waist and pulled her back in.

"_Damn_," she heard Jellal whisper, before she was zapped off her breath when he turned her around swiftly and crashed his lips into hers.

All forms of thought and emotion left Erza completely in that one second of sheer disbelief when he finally parted his lips for her. While having resented Jellal for not moving much when _she _kissed him just a second ago, Erza was left cursing herself for the sheer irony as she now stood unmoving. The hotness that was his tongue pressed insistently against her bottom lip, begging for an opening, and all Erza could do was stand there like an idiot when she ought to go with the flow.

It took her almost a minute and the beginning of signs of withdrawal on Jellal's part to come to her senses.

_What a fool I am, _was her last coherent thought, before she gave in to the electrifying sensation of her lover's lips on hers.

It was like a whole new level of ecstasy that Erza had never experienced before. Parting her lips and angling her mouth to accommodate Jellal better, Erza felt a spark of electricity jolt through her veins as she responded in equal measure. With her lips now separating to grant him opening, Jellal went a step further and wound his arms around her waist to press their bodies together. Sighing, as she now felt the hard plane of his chest press against her, and his arms curl around her waist, Erza lost herself into the kiss, her mouth moving enthusiastically and in tandem with Jellal's. The heat generated through their rigorous actions stirred a muted yet delicious spark of pleasure in the pit of her belly, and Erza thrust her hips forward in an attempt to ease that tension just a little.

It turned out, hers had not been a bad idea at all.

Cursing into her mouth as Erza's lower half met his through a thin layer of fabric, Jellal almost spun her around in his grip and dropped her onto the bed to his right. However, he wasn't done tasting her yet, so he paused in his actions.

"Erza," he breathed, his voice a feral growl that Erza had last witnessed coming from his mouth when in his Siegrain persona. His hands that had been caressing the small of her back now moved closer to her behind, cupping the cheeks unsurely and hoisting her up slightly with a sharp and sudden jerk upwards.

"Erza…" he whispered again in between a quick sequence of short, heated kisses, his voice, a guttural growl. "I missed you…" he punctuated his sentence with the tongue that he thrust into her mouth to taste her teeth and gums, eliciting a sharp groan from his lover.

"I missed you too…Jellal," Erza breathed into his ears as his mouth trailed a fine line of open-mouthed kisses down the side of her neck, beginning from the nape to her collarbones, and then down to the dip in her kaftan that was riding high on her waist. His right hand found its way underneath the fabric the very next second.

Erza moaned when she felt the coarse skin of his warm hands glide smoothly across her abs just above her panty line, thumbs tracing tiny circles as they made their uninterrupted journey to the small of her back. Once there, his nails dug a little into the hardened flesh and raked up her spinal column, causing her to draw a short, sharp breath.

Eager to respond in equal measure, Erza let her hands glide up the fabric underneath her fingers, palms making a slow and torturous journey up his clothed torso until they settled snugly onto his shoulders. That was the point from where their journey accelerated to a whole new level.

Erza's fervent response as she dug her nails into his shoulders was what proved to be the final straw for Jellal and his mighty self-restraint. While he'd given himself to her the moment he'd decided to kiss her and then went ahead with it, it was her eager tongue against his, coupled with her enthusiastic hands that finally did the job for him. Caution and moral issues thrown to the wind, he now let his hands slide more firmly down to her shapely bottom, palms cupping the curve more assertively and hoisting her upwards so that she was suspended mid-air with only his shoulders to work as support. Taking the hint quickly, Erza raised her legs to drape them around his waist, hesitating when he winced a little with the sudden contact of the metal in her prosthesis. He hissed in pain.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked in concern, eyes searching his as he shook his head with a smirk on his swollen lips.

"Not as much as you would if you interrupt this now," he surprised her when he rasped in response.

Erza almost blushed when she relished the feel of looking at that delicious smirk on his lips. For how long had she wished for him to throw away the guilt and just look at her that way? He looked absolutely ravishing at this point – his lips red with the kiss and his hair tousled beyond redemption – and most of it was simply because he'd finally buried his self-deprecating tendencies for her.

The very thought made her want to let him have her against the wall.

Unfortunately or fortunately for her, Jellal had other ideas.

Spinning her around in a sharp movement, he crashed his lips into hers again, walking – gliding, rather – towards the single bed standing invitingly by the open window. Filtered by the branches hanging outside, the warm afternoon light streamed in through the partially drawn curtains, saturating the plain cotton sheets with a kind of glow that made them look more like liquid satin.

On hindsight, things weren' exactly progressing the way Erza had once imagined they would (heck she had never really imagined she would get _this _close to Jellal ever), but this was nevertheless turning out to be the best moment of her life. Of course she had had her fantasies as a child and then a young woman, finding comfort and release in the erotic novels she would regularly collect and try to hide from the prying eyes of one Levy McGarden. As a little girl at the tower, she'd had a massive crush on the man – boy back then, of course – she was currently straddling, and she clearly remembered having such cute little fantasies as holding hands with him and kissing him gently on the lips. When a little older in her late teens and early twenties, her needs had intensified with time and she often found herself in the privacy of her bedroom at the dorm, touching herself with only one thought in mind – Jellal's imaginary hands running over her body and attributing her releases to his skills in the sack.

To think that she'd finally get to have those very hands, that very body she had so deeply desired for herself after so long, Erza couldn't have been happier. It was a terrific moment that felt like a blessing from the heavens; a rare occasion, indeed, in a world where hopes and dreams could only exist within the little crevices that were the divisions of the rebel army.

When her back touched the mattress and she felt rather than saw Jellal's form hover above hers, Erza finally managed to understand the gravity of the situation. The moment her left leg brushed against Jellal's inner thigh in her attempt to get her head to the pillow, she felt something stir up in the pit of her belly because of the hardness that rubbed against her exposed leg. The soft, breathy groan in her ear which came immediately after the contact confirmed her suspicions.

Her heart almost jolted out of her rib cage.

"S-sorry," she mumbled, although for what reason, she couldn't quite explain to herself. Jellal, who had been tracing her clavicle with his lips and tongue, paused in his progress to look her in the eyes.

Erza was sure she had forgotten how to breathe in that one second of absolute clarity and perfection.

"Don't apologise," he whispered, breathing heavily into her lips, his olive eyes burning right through her brown ones. It was an exquisite feeling; an other-worldly experience as she lay underneath the man she loved with all her heart, his eyes burning with pure passion and his hot breath fanning her face in a series of quick, sharp bursts. It was difficult to believe that a person who'd pulled himself away using all his willpower from a kiss he'd so wanted years ago, was now lying atop her, exploring her exposed neck with an enthusiasm that pleasantly surprised her.

"You don't have to apologise for anything, Erza…" Jellal continued, his hands now moving from her waist to cup her cheeks, eyes still locked intensely with hers. "Not for this, not for anything… I,"

Alarm bells ringing in the back of her mind alerted Erza to a possible repetition of what had happened at the beach. It just needed words related to repentance and apologies for Jellal to get back on the beaten path of self-hatred, and this time, Erza was pretty damn adamant about finishing what they had started together.

Therefore, with resolve in her heart and a pleasant swirl somewhere at the meeting of her thighs, Erza raised her own hands to cup Jellal's cheeks. She looked at him fully, trying to convey her acceptance, her determination through gestures alone, and it certainly worked well considering the sudden fire of lust that she saw igniting somewhere in the midst of the haze covering his eyes.

Before she could draw in the next breath to calm her racing heart down, Jellal had dipped back in to attack her uninjured shoulder with his teeth and tongue.

"Oh…" Erza breathed, as he chanced upon a particularly sensitive spot that she never knew she had. Correlating her response with the movement of his lips across the said spot, Jellal made a quick calculation and attacked that little dip at the meeting of her neck and collarbones to elicit the response over and over again.

For one thing Erza was glad. The little patch of sunlight streaming in through the windows cast an ethereal glow to her surroundings and made it possible for her to _see _him; to see that head of blue hovering over her form, steadily progressing down the length of her body and leaving behind a wet trail of skin tasted. Whenever exposed to the slightly chilly air of the room around her, the trail of wet skin blazed as if on fire, making her shiver down to the bones.

On top of this exquisite sensation, Jellal seemed to have developed a pattern that drove her crazy every time he explored a part of her never tested before. Halfway down her front, he was perfectly capable of making her squirm despite kissing her through a layer of fabric that was her kaftan. Once he reached the end of the cloth material somewhere mid-thigh, he looked up at her with unfocused eyes, his hands gripping the hem tightly.

Erza understood his intentions just as her heart jumped up to her throat. Biting her lower lip unconsciously, she lifted her hips a little, allowing Jellal to raise the hem all the way up to her shoulders in a deliberately slow movement. He uncovered her piece by piece, charted her inch by inch, his eyes studying her intensely and curiously as he raised the fabric an inch per minute with his right hand, the fingers of his other hand trailing the exposed skin left behind.

A delicious shiver running up her spine and a slight touch of dampness accumulating in her panties urged Erza to move her own hands around. All this time, she had been lying prone to her lover's ministrations, her hands placed firmly on his shoulders as he went about his business. It was only when she tried rubbing her thighs together to ease the ache in her most sensitive areas that she realised she needed to be more creative. A prominent bulge pressing insistently against her now exposed abdomen added to the urgency of the situation.

Therefore, taking a deep breath as Jellal now urged her to lift her head, Erza obliged and let him lift the piece of cloth off herself, shivering slightly as she now lay before his eyes in nothing but her undergarments.

"Beautiful…" he whispered, eyes taking in the sight of her with wonder written in them. Erza flushed as she studied the look on his face – a curious blend of amazement and…_reverence _that he seemed to be exuding – observing her, adoring her, _worshipping_ her. He reached forward with his right hand, his eyes never once breaking the contact with hers as he gently grabbed her by the wrist and pulled.

Erza obeyed willingly, pushing her weight onto her legs and waist as she detached her upper half from the bed, hands reaching forward to wrap around Jellal's shoulder so that they were flush against each other. With her breasts now pressed to his chest, Erza felt the sudden need to get her partner into the same state of undress as she. The friction caused by rubbing skin against fabric was good, but skin on skin seemed like a better option.

She let her hands wander from his back to the front therefore, searching for the buttons which she then pulled. They came off one after the other, slow and steady, and she never once let their eye contact break. It was deeply erotic in a sense; both sitting on their knees on the bed, Erza in her undergarments, pulling at the buttons on Jellal's shirt with their eyes locked and piercing.

"You're beautiful too," she offered, blushing slightly as she fessed up, prying open the last button and pushing the shirt off Jellal's shoulder to throw it into some random corner of the room. He made the task easier by twisting his shoulders a little, and Erza didn't miss the muscles that flexed when he moved. They captivated her, called her forth.

Reaching forward, she ran two shaking palms over his chest, feeling the muscles underneath her fingers as she went lower and lower. There came a point where she almost decided to run her fingers over the bulge straining against his pants, but then the sudden dryness of her lips reminded her where they ought to be for the moment. She bent forward, returning the favour when she let her mouth trail light kisses all the way from Jellal's neck to his chest, her hands disappearing into his hair and pulling lightly at the strands. The vibration she felt against his Adam's apple when she kissed him there caused something delicious to stir in her belly.

And that sensation was also what forced her to speed things up a little. Taking his warm hands into her own, Erza let their lips meet again as she guided his hands over to her back, letting them brush against the strap of her bra.

"Do it," she breathed into his mouth, panting slightly as she observed how his eyes had widened a little.

It was a temporary reaction that lasted a microsecond, though.

For within no time, Jellal caught on and grabbed the strap, his shaking fingers trying to pry her off the garment. He tried once, then twice, but all he managed to do was tangle the hooks further.

Erza stayed still for a second, watching the almost indiscernible lines on Jellal's forehead as he tried to take the bra off. His eyebrows had automatically converged in the middle, and somehow, Erza thought it was the most adorable thing she had seen in her life.

Her lips quivered for only a second, before she gave in and burst into the kind of laughter that brings tears to one's eyes.

"I-I'm sorry, I-" she gasped as she noticed how Jellal was at the verge of laughing himself, his hands still hooked onto her bra strap. There was definitely something adorable about watching a thirty nine year old man fumble with a bra strap.

"Yeah…" Jellal mumbled, smiling sheepishly and shrugging. However, it turned out that this had just been a trick to catch her unawares. Smirking just a split second after flashing that goofy grin, Jellal smoothly separated the hooks, removed the straps and divested her off her bra as if he hadn't just been struggling with the garment a few seconds ago.

The laughter died in Erza's throat.

For the look he gave her when she sat bare before his eyes was something that qualified the embers in the pit of her stomach to a full blown inferno.

"Lie down." He said simply, placing a hand each on her shoulders and pushing her down back onto the pillow. The moment her head hit home, he attacked her neck with a ferocity that drew the wind out of Erza's lungs. She moaned, she writhed and she squirmed; her neck was drawn back far to expose as much of skin as possible, and Jellal utilised this new position to her absolute pleasure. As he attacked her neck with wet kisses and light nips, he let his hands travel up her abdomen to the underside of her breasts, skirting the edges as if waiting for permission. When Erza let out a particularly loud moan into his mouth, he took this as an approval and proceeded to cup the mounds with hands that were pleasantly warm against her slightly cold body.

Erza's back arched as she relished the sensation of his rough hands on her sensitive skin. Her nipples that had hardened ages ago, roughened further and chapped against his enthusiastic fingers, causing her to dig her own fingers into his scalp and pull at his now damp locks.

"Jellal…" she whispered through her moans, a crossway between a request and a command. The tongue that had been teasing hers so perfectly now moved southwards, running over her clavicle, all the way down to the valley of her breasts. However, the feeling of it was nothing compared to what she felt when he removed one hand from her breast and replaced it with his mouth.

Erza had no idea how she could see stars in broad daylight. It may have been some weird form of Edolian magic, but whatever the hell it was, she did not have the time to contemplate further. Biting her lower lip and pulling at the sheets now, she let herself sink into the feeling of Jellal's tongue on her nipples, tasting and biting, first the left and then the right one. By the time he had rendered the buds a light shade of red with a mind-blowing combination of his tongue and fingers, Erza had been reduced to a shuddering pile of satisfaction and arousal.

If only she had known things were to heat up tenfold after that.

Detaching himself from Erza's breasts to her utter disappointment, Jellal turned his gaze up to look at her for a second, before jumping back in to trail a long line of kisses down her abdomen. The moment he reached her panty line and ran his lips over the band covering her most sensitive area, Erza knew the time had come. Only, he did not seem to be going anywhere near removing his pants despite the obvious bulge down his front.

"Jellal?" she whispered then, her voice uncertain, anxiety pooling in. She observed him keenly as he kept his eyes fixed on her underwear, the hands which were firmly planted on her waist, inching lower by the second.

"Will you let me?" he asked in a voice barely above a whisper, mouth still hovering a few centimetres above her panty line. His eyes met hers and Erza noticed the hunger in them, seeping through a darker shade of green as he studied her face from a rather dangerous position.

Erza gulped as her throat parched, fingers shivering in nervous anticipation. If Jellal was going to do what she thought he was about to do, oh boy was she losing it. Clearing her throat as it threatened to cut off any means of producing a sound, Erza nodded in silent permission and watched closely as Jellal proceeded to hook his fingers into the band and pulled down. Pushing her hips upwards to allow him passage, Erza's heart beat wildly against her chest as her underwear came off, revealing a little patch of red to his hungry eyes. He discarded the underwear in haste and placed his hands on her inner thighs, separating them so that he could get a better view of what lay underneath the trimmed growth.

He should have given her some form of warning, Erza thought in retrospect, because she lost control over the last shred of her sanity the precise moment his mouth descended upon her sex without a word. Arching sharply off the bed and letting out a rather embarrassing yelp, Erza proceeded to put a hand over her mouth to silence the scream that had almost made it to her lips. It was broad daylight, after all. She had no intentions of drawing attention to the activities happening in their room.

And damn were these activities anything but not utterly, deeply and soul-shatteringly satisfying.

His tongue lapped pleasantly at her opening, tracing her most intimate area as if it were his shrine. It swirled around the edges, occasionally travelling upwards to stroke that little bud of pleasure hidden underneath the layers, his tongue guided by a perfect movement that was at the same time spontaneous and seemingly well-practiced. It performed an experimental lick here, and then moved on to repeat the action elsewhere, all the while coming back to dip into her opening and into a particular spot inside that almost made her scream in pleasure. Fortunately, she found a way out of doing just that by digging her fingers sharply into the mattress underneath, her knuckles turning white with the pressure she applied. The moment Jellal decided to bring a finger into play by first stroking her clit in little circles and then plunging it into her opening, Erza had reached a point where she was just a stroke and nip away from her first orgasm.

"Je-" she began, her lips quivering as she felt the fire build up within, roiling in the pit of her belly and slowly extending upwards. He had brought a second finger into play without her knowledge, both of which he now inserted into her opening, thrusting gently as if to test the waters. They slid in easily, what with all the natural lubrication Erza was not ashamed to attribute to her lover, and he found it particularly interesting to maintain that slow, torturous rhythm as he simultaneously tasted her with his tongue and lips, creating a pattern that drove her to the edge.

She only had to raise her head a little to realise that the amazing thing happening to her wasn't a thing of wild fantasies.

With his head of blue settled comfortably between her thighs, lips closed over the entirety of her sex as if they had no business being elsewhere, Erza watched, rapt, as she braced herself for the first wave. It only took her a minute of silently watching Jellal lapping away at folds and suckling her clit to let go with a force that took the breath out of her lungs.

She gasped, arching sharply off the bed as he hit the right spot all of a sudden. The coil tightened just a tad bit more, tensing to the maximum, before it let go with a force that was enough to drive her insane. Erza muffled a scream with her hand, the rest of her body going rigid as ripples of pure, white-hot pleasure erupted outwards from their epicentre deep inside her belly.

One second, her body had been tense in response to the build-up caused by Jellal's tongue and lips, and the next, her arms and legs quivered as the waves of pleasure rode through her rather ruthlessly, marking, if not the best, then one of the best orgasms of her life.

Having felt more than having witnessed her orgasm through the fingers still buried inside her, Jellal shifted a little uncomfortably in his position as his member twitched inside his gradually tightening pants. Any doubts, any sense of righteousness that he might have felt while resisting Erza's kiss for the first time had been thrown out the window the moment he had allowed himself to unclasp her bra. Now that he had gone as far as tasting her most intimate area with his tongue – a sinful fantasy that had been a distant and painful subject of only the wildest of his wet dreams and jerk-off sessions before now – there was no backing from the natural progression of affairs.

Then there was also the additional matter of Erza rising slowly from her position on the bed, throwing her weight onto her elbows to bring herself to his eye level as she let the last wave of orgasm subside. Her beautiful hair was smeared across her sweat slicked forehead, her eyes unfocused yet determined. Jellal was certain he hadn't seen a woman as breath-taking as the one lying naked – both in body and soul – before his eyes.

"I think you're wearing too many clothes," she said in a voice that was slightly cracked, a hint of mischief and curiosity underlying her tone. She was looking at him intensely through slightly wet lashes, her lips parted open a little as she then proceeded to scan him from top to bottom. Jellal sat transfixed between her open thighs, as if he had only just realised where things were to proceed after that juncture.

"Here. Let me help you," she reached forward, hands unwavering and quick as they dived down to the belt holding his pants together. She unbuckled it with finesse – which was not all that surprising considering all those buckles she wore with her armour – proceeding to unbutton and unzip his pants and urging him to switch places by lying down on the bed. Slave to her rather mesmerising movements (and that wonderland of a body, of course), Jellal gently set his head against the pillows, letting the pants slide down his legs as he did so.

Erza had yet to figure where she was getting all of her confidence from. Just a couple of minutes ago, she'd been anxious about letting Jellal go down on her the first thing in the act, but god would she be lying if she said she hadn't enjoyed every single minute of it. It'd been a rather bold step, seen from a certain perspective, but then, these things were too many years due for her to really give a damn about them. In a sense, she was ecstatic Jellal had somehow become the kind to cut to chase and get done that which needed to be done.

Therefore, with this new found enthusiasm in heart, coupled of course with the afterglow of her first orgasm, Erza took her turn at hooking her hands into her partner's undergarment and pulling down.

Her throat went dry the moment his length sprung free from all confines, jutting proudly for her eyes to feast on. Throwing his underwear into some forgotten section of the room, Erza gulped as she reached forward with her right hand, fingers tingling with anticipation as she drew closer to him by the second.

"Erza…it's okay you don't-" Jellal began, shifting his hips uncertainly when she was just a millimetre away, but Erza braced her left arm against his thigh to hold him in place. The sudden contact of her now warm hand with the sensitive skin of his thigh made Jellal hiss, and Erza noticed that the sensation had managed to pass all the way down to his length which twitched ever so slightly in response.

"Will you let me?" she threw his question back at him, a ghost of a smirk on her lips as she turned to meet his slightly wide yet lust filled eyes. He looked a little undecided, yes, but from the way he was rising up to shift his weight onto his elbows, muscles tense as he looked from her form to his length and then back, Erza figured he'd never been readier in life.

To pay him back for the rather pleasant surprise a couple of minutes back, Erza dived in to take him into her mouth without warning, feeling a little empowered when he almost jumped in response. There was a loud gasp and a barely suppressed groan as she enclosed her lips around his tip, fingers encircling the rest of him and squeezing just enough to cause him to sit up. She ran an experimental tongue up his slit, noticing how warm, hard and whole he felt underneath her fingers.

"Er…za," Jellal was probably not breathing properly, Erza mused, for she could feel the short, sharp bursts of breath he was taking at irregular intervals when he ought to lay back down and enjoy the feeling. He was tense underneath the surface, his muscles rigid and his mind walking into two different directions, yet the way he had sneaked his fingers into her hair to curl them around her strands said he was very much looking forward to this. Erza smirked as she stuck her tongue out, running it agonisingly down the underside of his shaft repeatedly and loving it when he cursed under his breath. There was something incredibly arousing about Jellal muttering profanities somehow.

Unbelievably turned on as she was by this point, Erza moved forward to sit on his lap, right hand running up and down his length as she reached forward to kiss him on the lips and feel the taste of her own essence in his mouth. When their tongues engaged in a dance that sent their minds into a tizzy, Jellal reached forward with his own hand to close them around Erza's hand on his length. He was guiding her it seemed, making her adjust her pace to his liking by assisting her fingers as they glided over his shaft. The precum that had seeped from his engorged slit assisted them in their movements and heated up the air between them.

Jellal was practically out of breath by this point. The back of his head pressed flat against the pillow as Erza went back down to take him in his mouth after an amazing handjob, he panted as he desperately tried to hold onto the last of his threads of control. They had not yet reached the main event, and there was no way he was spending himself in a place where he ought not to spend himself. He got up abruptly, momentarily frozen as he took in the sight of his member swallowed up by Erza's soft lips, but then gathered himself as he placed a hand on her shoulder to make her stop.

"What happened? Did I-" Erza looked a little confused, her lips wet and swollen. She looked into his eyes with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation, and Jellal couldn't help but think if it was possible to love someone more than he loved this incredible woman.

"I-" he began, a little hesitant as he tried to explain his situation to her. "I wouldn't be able to hold long…" he let his sentence hang, hoping Erza would get the sentiment. And it turned out, she did. Her eyes widening slightly as realisation dawned on her, she stepped back a little with a hint of red on her cheeks, her chest rising and falling rapidly. For a minute, Jellal stared at her breasts as they moved along with her rapid breathing. Good thing to do, he thought in retrospect, because it alerted him to the urgency of the situation.

With a twitch down below warning him about an impending release, he got down to business by first attacking those swollen lips with fervour, and then guiding Erza to lie underneath him as he hovered over her form. He kissed her neck, ran his lips along her collarbone and nipped the valley of her breasts, all the while, separating her thighs with a single hand as he prepared himself for the inevitable. Warning bells were ringing dully somewhere at the back of his mind, but for the first time in his guilt-ridden existence, Jellal Fernandes just couldn't bring himself to give a damn.

However, there were some things that needed to be done first. Some permissions that needed to be taken.

"Erza…you sure about this?" he breathed into his lover's lips as he aligned himself against her opening, his shaft pulsing with anticipation just a few inches short of driving home. "We can-"

"Jellal?" Erza interrupted him as she shifted a little to position herself better underneath him.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Well, at least he had her permission now.

Biting his lips as his tip now touched her soaking wet entrance, Jellal almost lost it when he felt the heat radiating from within her. Experimentally, he let the tip of his length glide up her folds a few times to prepare her better, and the friction caused made them both groan into each other's shoulders.

There went the last thread of his self-control which he was never going to get back.

Bracing himself on his elbows so that his weight wouldn't crush her, Jellal buried himself to the hilt with one mighty push, his mouth falling open as her inner walls clamped down on him like a vice with the intrusion. She was hot, wet and incredibly tight, just like he had always imagined her to be. He still had a hard time believing that he was currently deep inside that one woman who had only ever been so close to him in his dreams - normal and wet alike. He took a deep breath as the overwhelming sensation around his member almost milked his orgasm from him, but one act of crazy self-control and determination helped him rein in his release.

There was still a long way to go after all.

As far as Erza was concerned, she was sure she had yet to experience something so exquisite, so other-worldly as the feeling of her lover inside her. It didn't hurt as much as she'd initially thought it would, burning and stinging just a little bit instead as her vagina stretched immediately to accommodate. He was inside her down to his base, his tip dangerously close to a particular spot within her which promised one hell of a ride to oblivion. She bit her lip, burying her head into the vast expanse of shoulder and neck available in front as Jellal stayed still to let her adjust to the fullness.

"Are you okay?" he asked rather feebly into her ears, out of breath as he gave just the slightest shake of his pelvis. Erza nodded weakly in response, raising her legs to drape them around his hips, being just an extra bit gentle with her artificial one. Even if she could feel the strong muscles of his hip and calf with only one leg, Erza didn't mind much because she was currently filled to her full potential in the right place.

"Move," she breathed, hands encircling his neck and shoulders as she braced herself for some delicious friction. And happen it did. Along with a feeling that was much better than what she'd originally given it credit for.

Jellal started out slow, drawing back all the way up and then thrusting back in with a force that shook the bed underneath them. It caused Erza to jerk upwards against the pillow, her mouth falling open as a delicious sensation coursed through her veins when his length thrust deep inside her. He repeated the action, slow and deliberate, carefully studying her face every time he went back into her heat. There was something rather spiritually uplifting about watching one's lover relish some carnal pleasure, and Jellal would be lying if he said that Erza's expressions, as they were right now, weren't responsible for keeping his length hard.

"_Goddamnit_," he hissed when he thrust back in again, his pace having increased a little after the first few thrusts. Every time he slid back in with a powerful force, her feminine muscles gripped him tight and hard, falling down on him from all sides and urging him to come. It took Jellal all of his willpower to stop himself from giving in to such persuasion.

"Faster…Jellal," Erza groaned, her head thrown back as she unconsciously buckled her hips and thrust them upwards, meeting her lover's moves with equal enthusiasm. Her eyes were shut tight, mouth pressed into a thin line as she let herself drown into the act. Without even knowing it, her fingers had dug into the muscles on Jellal's back and shoulders, causing an itch that was at the same time painful and pleasurable.

Faster, she said? Well, Jellal had no intentions of denying her that request when all he wanted for himself was to drill her into the bed.

Suddenly throwing his weight back as he moved to a sitting position, Jellal performed a quick transition when he raised Erza's better leg to hook it onto his shoulder. With his member still deep inside her, he shifted his weight onto his knees as he settled himself between her open thighs, the new position allowing him a breath-taking view of Erza in all her naked glory. Without breaking that electrifying eye contact, he separated Erza's other thigh and pulled her flush towards him so that he could fit her better. The resultant thrust caused them both to groan in pleasure.

One last look; one last passing of a silent agreement between two pairs of lust-filled eyes, and Jellal was off, pushing forward in a steady rhythm that was enough to cause the burn in his groin to ignite itself into something bigger and better. There was sweat pouring down his back and front, pooling around the corners of his brows as it streamed down from his damp locks. Every push, every move forward had him reeling with ecstasy, making him look forward to that one final event which would surely have the capacity to redefine his very existence with the nature of its intensity. Lying underneath him with her arms over her head, fingers touching the headboard behind, Erza turned her head sideways to muffle her groans with the underside of her arm. Although not loud enough for him to hear it, Jellal was damn sure she was chanting his name constantly through the moans, her eyes screwed shut as he drove into her with an intensity that was a step short of turning into something wilder.

Jellal had her sounds of pleasure to blame for his sudden, almost uncalled for change in pace a couple of minutes into the act. While it was pretty much left unsaid between the two, Jellal knew he ought to go faster when Erza shifted her hips unconsciously to increase the magnitude of pleasure for herself. He complied therefore, going as fast as he could without slamming into her. That would come a little later.

"_Yes_!" Erza exclaimed the very moment he did that one thrust a little faster and harder than the previous one. Her body, it seemed, had adjusted itself to the new pace automatically, her hips pushing upwards to meet his in perfect synchronisation. She was practically whimpering by this point, and Jellal wasn't too far behind either, the change in speed and angle driving him to the edge. At this rate, he wouldn't last long and he wasn't even sure if his partner was enjoying the act as much as he was.

"Erza?" he huffed as he continued driving into her, causing her to crack open an unfocused eye at him.

"Switch." He grabbed her by the waist, pulling her up while he simultaneously bent forward to take her place. All the while, he didn't let his shaft leave the safe sanctuary it had started to grow rather accustomed to, groaning loudly as a particular twist of her hips caused his length to go further up inside where it was tighter and better.

While left a little disoriented with the sudden change in position, Erza readjusted herself at lightning fast speed as she sat astride Jellal, both of her hands resting on his damp chest as she rose her hips a little. Taking a deep breath to settle her hammering pulse, Erza slammed down with a force that made Jellal gasp and marvel at the speed in which she had gathered herself. One more bounce on his member, and she was off, riding him like there was no tomorrow. She was quick, enthusiastic and very powerful, every cycle of her rising and falling hips hitting Jellal just right, causing his toes to curl and his groin to burn. It was exhilarating, this experience with her, both of them sharing their body and soul in an act that was the most intimate way for two humans to connect with each other. And while Jellal was somehow convinced he was going to hell for letting himself be taken by someone who walked the path of light, he just couldn't bring himself to fear that knowledge at the moment.

As for Erza, there had never been a point in her life where she had felt like life could be so utterly fulfilling. As she rode herself to oblivion, her body one with the man she loved more than life itself, Erza decided she had finally reached a point where she could say she would die without any regrets.

They were beginning to reach that point just before the pinnacle, the coils in their respective cores tightening to their limits. Jellal was trying to focus his attention not only on the feeling along his length, but also the mesmerising body of one Erza Scarlet as she danced herself to an unimaginable euphoria, her breasts bouncing, rich hair smeared across a perfect face that was contorted in absolute pleasure. She bit her lower lip unconsciously as she rode him, her eyes screwed shut and head titled back as she pushed her weight down onto her knees and then back to glide smoothly up and down his shaft. Jellal watched, rapt, the meeting point where their bodies melded into one, his breath taken away from him when he focused his attention on how perfect, how damn correct it looked when his length disappeared into Erza's folds after being swallowed up by her heat, only to be pushed back out again repeatedly.

It felt like home.

"Jellal!" Erza's moans went a pitch higher when he felt the first signs of a rapidly constricting passage around his member. Her rhythm was growing to be more erratic by the second, her arms shaking slightly as she took in the amazing yet tense feeling that is the build-up before a soul satisfying release. Jellal felt it too, his balls tightening and his tip glistening as he prepared himself for the explosion, but something that he noticed on Erza's face made him pause and rewind a little.

He squinted through the lust shrouding his eyes, his gaze studying the slightly frustrated look on Erza's face as she concentrated on reaching her part of the finale while simultaneously making sure she was doing a good enough job for her partner. Her hands had unconsciously tightened into fists, her teeth biting a rather too harshly into her lower lip as she drove in fierce concentration. Jellal reckoned he understood what the problem was and decided to solve it his way despite the fact that a solution could be worked out in the very position Erza was in at the moment.

After all, he somehow had to end it with their faces just inches apart, her body acting as a warm cushion of comfort when he would fall over with exhaustion after crossing his way into dreamland with her.

"Come here," he grunted in an effort that cost him all of his willpower. Using a single arm hooked around her waist, he flipped them over again without breaking any form of contact (while creating an additional one as he pressed his lips to hers in a fierce kiss), climbing on top of her after separating her thighs as far as he could with his free hand. With the same hand then, he reached down to her sex to stroke her clit while he drove into her at a pace that couldn't be called anything less than slamming.

The double effect of his fingers and his member was what finally drove Erza insane. Breaking her mouth away from the kiss to gasp rather loudly, Erza's eyes widened as she experienced the kind of sensation she had been longing to create within her body. It was bigger, and it was better, coming across as a flame ready to turn into hellfire and consume her whole. She didn't notice it herself, but she was practically chanting her lover's name by this point, her body writhing as he rubbed her sex while slamming into her so that her head almost hit the headboard behind.

"J-Jellal…y-yes!" one deft thrust in the right direction, one touch of his tip against the bundle of wonder deep inside her, and Erza was set off from the hinges, her nerve endings scalding, muscles contracting all over her body in a domino effect. It began with an explosion inside her core, her vaginal muscles contracting rapidly around Jellal's shaft as he continued with his final few thrusts to achieve his own finale. She was sure she couldn't see anything around for at least a minute during that pleasurable blackout, her ears ringing and her throat muscles tightening as she held onto Jellal for dear life while simultaneously being washed over by a wave of pleasure like she'd never experienced before. The ones she used to achieve while pleasuring herself didn't compare at all to this new sensation, this bigger one bringing about an own brand name for itself.

A brand that she hopefully looked forward to hearing more from in the future.

Jellal only had a couple more thrusts left on his side to achieve his part of the climax after that. Cursing, as he was overwhelmed by the delicious sensation of being coaxed into giving in by a group of powerful vaginal muscles, he finally let the rope drop as he spilled himself into a still shuddering Erza. There was definitely nothing like the feeling of shooting your essence into a woman you could willingly go to hell for, he decided.

"Erza…" Jellal whispered when he was done riding the last rise on his pinnacle, his breathing uneven and ragged as his hands gave in and he fell forward, his head coming to rest on the valley of Erza's breasts. He huffed and panted into the generous swell underneath his chin as Erza's tired hands came up to curl her fingers into his sweat-slicked hair.

"You know what?" he said then, his voice muffled slightly by the uneven expanse his head was resting on. "You've grown into a beautiful, _beautiful_ woman, Erza Scarlet." He couldn't see her face, but Jellal was damn sure Erza's cheeks had turned the same shade as her hair. And that was not the sole consequence of an amazing afterglow.

In response to his confession, Jellal received a tender kiss on his forehead as Erza now used her fingers to stroke his cheek and shoulders, urging him to rest more comfortably against her frame. Giving into the warmth exuding from her gesture, Jellal allowed his tired eyes to shut and his breathing pattern to even. It only took a few regular intakes of Erza's natural fragrance through her damp and bare skin for him to drift off into his first peaceful slumber in nearly twenty years.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

She woke up with a heart full of content and an amazing feeling of being complete.

Opening her eyes slowly in sync with her exploring fingers, Erza felt a tiny flutter in the pit of her stomach as she realised she was running her hands over a smooth expanse of muscles. She titled her head up a little, eyes still bleary with sleep as she took a quick survey of her surroundings and the position that she had slept in after that life-changing event. She was delighted to discover that she was currently nestled in Jellal's arms, her head resting directly above his calmly beating heart. She ran a finger over his chest to feel the pulse, kissing the expanse of muscles and skin protecting it as she tried to make herself believe that this all wasn't a dream.

"I love you," she whispered as she titled her head back up to observe him as he slept, reaching up to also plant a kiss on his forehead.

It was the contact of her soft and slightly wet lips against his skin that stirred Jellal. He began by blinking his eyes at her, his lips open a little as he tried to take stock of their new situation. There was something strange in his eyes when they fully adjusted themselves to lock into hers, followed by a frown pulling his lips down and a crease marring his brows. When his body rose into its full state of consciousness, his muscles suddenly tensing against her naked skin, Jellal did something that made Erza's heart skip a beat in terror.

He jerked away from her as if she were made of poison.

"I…I," his eyes had immediately dropped down in shame as he looked around for his discarded undergarments. When he found his boxers lying some distance away from the bed, he slipped them on quickly, simultaneously looking for his shirt which he wore next.

"I…I-I'm sorry I…" he was practically mumbling to himself by this point, his hands visibly shaking as he hastily dressed himself while simultaneously avoiding looking into the eyes of a confused Erza.

"W-what happened?" she demanded of him, getting up from the bed but not bothering to cover herself up. They were past that point now, after all.

Jellal did not even make the effort to look into her direction as he put on his pants, ready to jump out the very window by the looks of it. He did one last survey of the room (without turning even a single glance in Erza's direction), before moving towards the exit.

He paused with his hand on the doorknob, his eyes downcast and clouded over by guilt.

Erza's heart thundered against her chest as she waited for the dreaded explanation to come.

When it did, she could feel two emotions taking over at the same time – the anger and the pain of a heart being shattered into tiny pieces.

"I'm sorry Erza. I am afraid we can't take this further. I'm sorry, but it ends here."

He turned his head in her direction, but his eyes were not looking at her.

"I'm sorry."

He went out the door as if his presence hitherto had been a thing of ages past.

Or perhaps, an aspect of her parched imagination.

* * *

**(A/N): a couple of things: pardon me for not following the intended format (twoshot, that is), but i just couldn't continue after the point where i decided to end this chapter. it seems like an appropriate way to end this part in my opinion anyway. part three will probably have more fluff than smut (for i will be tying all loose ends in the next installment), but i might just change my mind like i always end up doing.**

**this is my first time writing smut. i can't believe i wrote twenty pages of it in my first attempt. i need to pat myself on the back just for that. also, i tried writing the sex as realistically as i could, because sex really isn't always about a series of steps that needs to be executed in a synchronised fashion, or pieces fitting together perfectly all the time. the experience differs from person to person.**

**jellal does not lose his eyesight in this fic. he gets treated by edolians in this verse - a people whose technology advanced substantially after the disappearance of magic. although i like all those visuallyimpaired!jellal hcanons, i decided to take a different route in this story for various reasons.**

**thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter! and i also urge people to review this one as well! it takes a lot of effort to write a long chapter and i would appreciate it if you guys drop by to let me know if this was a job well done or not. your contribution will be deeply appreciated and will help me conclude the story in part 3 :)**


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